Julia
by Silens
Summary: On-Hold. Squinoa for now, eventually Squffie. Clorith, Selvine, Sei OC , FF8, Slight AU. Things are looking down for Leon when he suddenly loses consciousness and finds himself in a whole other world. Literally. What can Yuffie do to help? RR Please.
1. Chapter One

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter One  
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D r e a m ?  
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His lips twitched as he listened, whole heartedly, to the piano score that was playing on an old record player he had borrowed earlier that day. The sound was pleasant and harmonious. With muscled arms firmly tucked beneath his dark head, the young man relaxed his body as he lie on his bed. Memories of a past life began to fog his mind as the tune played in the background. Memories that were new to him, yet at the same time familiar. Soon his eyelids began to droop and then close completely. Stormy, blue eyes shut themselves out from the world and a small, content, smile played softly over his firm lips. The music slowly came to a stop and he slept with a relaxed expression upon his face.

_uall . . ._

Hn . . . ?

_Squall . . ._

. . . What?

"Squuaaaaall . . ."

Squall scowled lightly in his sleep and turned on his side. A soft, melodic, giggle floated gently to his ears, making a small half smile come to his lips.

"Squuuuaaaaaaaaaaaall!"

"Yuffie, not now, OK? I'm trying to sleep and it's _Leon_, by the way," he said tirely, burying his face into his pillow.

A small "Hmph" sounded throughout the room

"Pft! You must still be dreaming or something because my name is definately _not_ Yuffie. And what's with this "Leon" get-up all the sudden?"

At this, Squall's stormy, blue eyes shot open with surprise and then shocked. The blood noticeably drained from his face once his eyes set on the owner of the voice.

"Wha . . . ? R-R-Rinoa!?" He croaked out.

Beautiful, smiling, brown eyes blinked down at him with mild bewilderment. Dark, streaked, shoulder length hair brushed the girls face and forehead as she cocked her head to the side.

Squall closed his eyes, thinking maybe it was a dream.

_Yeah_, he thought, _this is a dream. All one stupid dream. Yuffie will soon come and pester me like she always does. Right?_

He flinched and backed away when he suddenly felt the touch of something cool and warm on his forehead.

His eyes, now wide open, stared with mild shock into a pair of worried, brown eyes.

"Squall, are you OK? Should I get a doctor?" The girl asked concernly, while bitting worriedly at her plump, bottom lip.

Squally could only stare and then swallow. He grimaced when he found that his throat had gone dry. And then before either one of them could react or say anything, his eyes rolled back into his head and his body went limp.

"Squall . . . ? Squall!"

Getting no response from the prone, young man, she turned on her heel and fled out the room--her eyes watering all the while. On her way out and down the hall, she bumped and stumble into students, who either scowled or looked on in confusion at the upset girl. Many tried to slow and stop her on her way for help, while others tried to ask her what was wrong. Paying no heed to those that surrounded her, she made her way to and through a gray and white hall. She only stopped briefly at the entrance of the doors that led into the room that was the Balamb Garden's infirmary. Just as she was beginning to rush in through the now open doors she collided into a short, stout looking woman, who grabbed on firmly to the upset girl's upper arms to steady them both from falling over.

"Whoa, there! Slow down--Rinoa!? Oh, my dear, what ever is the matter?" The woman questioned gently while taking in the young girl's tearful appearance.

"I-It's Sq-uall!" Rinao gasped out, almost to the point of hysterics, while clinging to the older woman. "H-He blacked-out in his room and I d-don't kno-ow wha-what's wrong!"

The older woman hushed the girl in a motherly fashion before firmly, but gently, prying the young woman's grip from her arms and clothing.

"Hey, calm down now. You hear? It won't do you any good, not even Squall, if you're in hysterics. Right?"

The woman smiled softly when she saw the girl nod. "Good," she responded gently. "Now why don't you go and lie yourself down on one of them cots there and I'll be right back. You said he was in his room, right?" Getting a slow nod in reply she hurriedly made her way down then out the hallway. Students everywhere were standing about and small murmurs of what just happened flowed from ear to ear.

Seeing this and the lack of activity, the older woman said in a stern voice, just loud enough to be heard above their quiet murmurs, "Don't you all have classes to attend?"

Some students bowed their head in shame, while others shrugged their shoulders before continuing on their way.

The woman sighed audibly to herself and shook her dark and graying head before, once again, hurriedly walking in the direction of the Garden's Dormitories.

Upon reaching the entrance to the dormitories, she pulled out a cardkey that was given to her on her day of employment. It was a key to practically every door within Garden and this included the student and SeeD dormitories. Though, in respect to the students and SeeD's privacy, it was used only for emergencies. And _this_, from what she could tell, was an emergency.

Passing all the dual bedrooms, which were only given to the cadets, she headed in the direction of the single rooms, which were given to the students who graduated into a full fledged SeeD.

She stopped in front of a door for just a few, short moments to catch her breath--it was a long walk--and slid the cardkey into the slot. The door slid open and she entered. Her dark eyes resting upon a prone figure that was the ever infamous Squall Leonhart.

"Oh, Squall," she sighed, "what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

Not expecting an answer, she moved and settled near the edge of the bed and put a hand on his forehead. He was cool to the touch and he didn't seem to be running a fever. She then took out a miniture flashlight that she always carried around, no matter where she went, and leaned over his body to gently lift open an eyelid. She flashed the light beneath and around his iris, making sure there was no abnormalities and then reached down to take his pulse. It was faint, but was beating in a strong and steady rhythm. His breathing was normal and everything appeared to be fine and dandy. She grunted and turned to leave. She had to make sure the boy's girlfriend wasn't killing herself with hysterics. But just as she was heading out his room, she heard a fainted murmuring coming from the bed and soon found that is was a kind of mantra.

". . . dreaming . . . Yuffie . . . have . . . to be . . . dreaming . . ."

She frowned upon hearing this. Knowing Squall, ever since he was first enrolled in Garden around the age of five or six, she knew that this was strange and out of character of him. Instead of heading out the door, she pulled out the chair from under his desk and settled herself down. She decided to wait until he woke up and then get some answers.

Ten minutes had rolled by when she heard a deep-throated groan come from the bed. Slowly, stormy blue eyes opened and blinked a few times for focus.

"Yuffie . . . ? Aerith? . . . Cloud?" He muttered groggily. He tried to sit up but found himself being pushed back down on the bed with firm, gentle hands.

"Hey, take it easy, eh? Don't move too fast," said a deep, feminine voice.

The room was brightly lit from the afternoon sunlight, making it hurt to get his eyes to focus on the person before him and also the sudden frowned that now settled itself upon the middle-aged woman's forehead. The voice was female, but was not either Yuffie or Aerith, which made him frown. But for some strange reason, he recognized it and had a feeling he could trust this person. So taking the woman's advice, he lied back down.

"Where's Yuffie, Aerith and Cloud?" He asked or more like commanded. He had an arm draped over his eyes so he still couldn't see who he was speaking to.

"Who? Yuffie, Aerith and Cloud?" The woman asked a bit taken aback. She frowned even more before saying, "Why, Commander Leonhart, there's no one by those names here."

That did it. Squall stiffen noticably and then lifted his stormy eyes to the middle-aged woman sitting before him.

"Commander!? What gives you the bloody right to call me "Commander"!?" He growled, beginning to position his self into a sitting position. The older woman could only stare and gape dumbfounded at the young man before her. Never in all her years had anyone spoke to her in such a way. Especially Squall.

"Commander Squall Leonhart was destroyed _years_ ago! Along with his friends, what family he had, his home and his life! It's Leon, got it!? Just Leon and nothing but Leon. OK!? Now, tell me," he said in an eerily calm voice, "where are my friends Yuffie, Aerith and Cloud?"

_What!? What's going on here?_ She thought to herself. The doctor could only sit there and continue watching him with wide, beyond shocked, eyes.

After finding her voice she stammered, "B-but, Commander!"

Squall's scowl darkened.

"Er, . . . Leon," the name felt strange to her lips, but she continued on, "You _are_ the commanding officer on Garden and you are Squall Leonhart! We're in Garden as I spea--"

She stopped suddenly when she realized that he was staring at her with a blank eyes and a pale complexion.

"Garden . . . Balamb," he said in an expressionless voice, "But . . . wasn't it . . ."

His eyes widened in diameter and his voice trembled with his next words.

". . . my friends...everyone...Garden...they're here? Alive? Rin?" He asked in that same empty voice.

The good doctor, not wanting him to go off on her again, only nodded in answer.

Squall pulled his legs up to his chest and began to shake violently. He buried his head within the folds of his arms and let tears, he'd been holding back for years, to finally come out. There were no heart wrenching sobs or cries. Just tears. He lifted his head and just stared blankly at his damp arms. Then a sudden warm feeling ingulfed him and, like a child would to its mother, he buried himself in it.

For the first in a long time, she didn't know what to do. She had seen many strange and unusual things in her lifetime, but never something like this. Nothing compared. She just sat there in silence and watched as he curled him self into a ball and begin to shake. But when he lifted his blank, tearful, eyes, her motherly instincts took over and, positioning herself next to the boy, pulled him into a warm embrace. Though, she never had children of her own, she considered all the students and SeeDs within Balamb Garden her own and didn't think of them less. 

A soft smile came to her lips as she thought, _Hyne, I know just about each and every one of them since they were little things running around and making trouble where ever they went. And Squall . . . ,_ she sighed while brushing back a lock of his short hair, _Squall is definately no exception._

She remembered when he first enrolled in Garden and became a cadet, training to become a SeeD, and how, on that very day, he discovered his first rival--Seifer Almasy. The two would always spring into a fight whenever they seemed to cross paths with one another. And usually, because of the scrapes, busted lips, bloody noses, heh, you name it, she, Doctor Kadowaki of Balamb Garden, would come and tend their wounds. Though Squall, most of the time, never initiated any of their fights unless provoked by Seifer. Seifer was always the bully and was a nuisance to other students and instructors, but she knew that he was just like that to mostly draw attention to himself. He was a lonely kid with few friends, just like Squall had been and became even moresome when he became the Soceresses Edea's and then Ultimecia's knight. Everyone hated him then. Everyone but his two loyal companions who would, by any means, follow him to the end of the world--Raijin and Fuujin. Which had actually almost happened. She cringed inwardily and pushed those last thoughts to the farthest reaches of her mind. The past was the past. Last she heard, Seifer and his posse were trying to make a new living in Fisherman's Horizon. And she hope to Hyne, that they were and bade them well. Like she said, everyone within garden was her children. She smirked. Even the bad ones.

Deep, soft breathing reached her ears and slowly, without disturbing, she pulled away from the now slumbering teen. He sighed in his sleep and turned once she lied him back down onto his bed. After pulling the blankets up and around his shoulders, she turned to leave.

"Better page Cid and tell him Squall's not going to be working this week," she told herself while locking Squall's room door and then heading back to the infirmary.

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A W o r l d A P a r t ?  
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"Squaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!!" Sang a cheerful voice from down one of the many hallways of Hollow Bastion. Then in a mockingly, deep voice, "That's Leon!" A small fit of giggles soon followed.

Soon the door to a farely good sized bedchamber burst open and a girl, soon-to-be eighteen, bounced through. She chuckled quietly to herself while tip-toing to the double bed that was currently being occupied by her comrade in arms--Squall. She refrained from laughing and kept her giggles to herself, when she witnessed a rare smile on his lips.

_This will be a great one to share with Aerith and Cloud later_, she thought. Then outloud, "Well . . . maybe not Cloud, but Aerith for sure!"

She quickly clamped a hand over her month at her outburst, but then stopped and grinned impishly when she remembered her original intent and mission: waking up the lion from it's den.

The girl inwardily winced when she remembered what happened the last time she was "assigned" this same exact mission by Cloud. She'd nearly lost her head back then by Squall's gunblade. With this in mind and not wanting to indure the same fate over again, she moved toward her target with caution.

Although, she had to admit, she kind of regretted having to wake him up. He was all sweet and peaceful looking. But ever since Cloud came back, next to Leon, he too was the leader around this joint. So whatever they both said was practically law. She didn't mind it, since they were all friends, but sometimes this irritated and annoyed her beyond reason. Both him and Aerith were closer to her in age, yet they always seem to toss things her way. She grumbled lightly to herself about having do stuff for the others just because she happened to be the youngest of the group. She was a ninja, damn it! No. Not just a ninja, but the GREATEST FEMALE NINJA EVER! And therefore should be treated as one! That's what she thought anyway.

She leaned close enough to "Leon's" head and yelled at the top of her lungs, "SQUALL! GET YOU'RE LAZY ASS UP AND MOVING, BOY!!"

Nothing. He was unfazed. The idiot even kept the smile on his face and it appeared to get slightly bigger.

The girl Yuffie, took it as an insult and then challenge.

Growling, she climb up and then over the slumbering Squall, boots on and all, and pushed herself up to stand on the bed. She did a mock somersault before once again standing on the bed. Then with a leap into the air, she began to jump and bounce all over. She became frustrated when he didn't wake up suddenly to lop her head off. Not that she wanted that, mind you. Then to let it all out (her frustration), hair flying and everything, she jumped one last time. She gasp out loud when the force of her jump suddenly bounced Leon's body off the bed and to the floor with a loud THUMP. She was so nervous and frightened at the same time that she began to bounce from feet to feet and then bit her bottom lip so hard that it drew drops of blood.

"Yuffie! What was that? Did you wake Leon?" Came a cool, deep voice from down the hall. Then it was soon followed by heavy footsteps and metal clanging together.

"Oh no!" Yuffie gasped to herself quietly with wide eyes. If Squall didn't kill her before Cloud reached the door, she knew the half-demon would gladly do it himself.

Jumping off the bed, she tried with all her might to pick Leon up and toss him on the bed. This only ended up with her half-sprawled across his chest and her face and lips in the area between where the neck and shoulder connected. Her face became hot and flushed within a single heartbeat.

"Yuffie, I asked you--What are you doing?" Came a slightly surprised, curious and amused voice from the doorway. "I told you to wake him up, not molest him in his sleep."

Yuffie's face was now on fire. She then rounded on the older man and stomped her foot indignantly.

"I was not, NOT, molesting him in his sleep!" She huffed, nostils flaring.

Cloud laughed at the girl while walking up to her and giving her a small pat on the head.

"Ease up, dragon. I was only joking."

_WHAT!? How dare the chocobo bastard say such a thing to me! Don't I get any respect around here!?_ She stood there huffing and puffing with agitation, glaring billions upon billions of shurikens into the half-demon's back. He was now looking Leon over and paid no heed to the girl's "Glare of Death" behind him. Finally, he stood back and glanced at her with a worried glint in his eyes, all the while still maintaining that cold, hard expression of his. Sometimes Yuffie found it hard to differentiate him from being serious or not. But by the look in his eyes, she knew that this time he was serious.

"What?" She asked, a bit put off from the sudden look of worry, when he had less than a minute ago teased her and laughed.

"Yuffie, before I came in, how exactly did you try waking him up?" He asked.

The girl in question danced from foot to foot, and just from that, Cloud knew immediately that she was afraid or nervous about something. It was a trait that had yet to abandon her from her years as a child. This particular trait got her into a lot of trouble when she tried to hide or lie about something.

"Yuffie. Answer the question," he said sternly.

"All I did was jump on the bed! How was I s'posed to know that he'd go flying off!?" She said, sticking out her lower lip in a pout and crossing her arms over her chest.

Cloud sighed wearily and rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand. Then turning back to the prone from of his comrade, he said, "Yuffie, go get Aerith."

Yuffie gaped and was about to question why when Cloud said in a clipped tone, "Now. Yuffie."

Stomping her foot and turning with an angry pout she headed off to find the Flower Girl, Aerith. She didn't have to go very far. For just as she exited Leon's bedchamber, Aerith stepped out from her own, which was just a couple doors down from her current position.

"Hi, Yuffie!" She called cheerfully to the younger girl. Upon seeing the pout on the girl's face, however, she asked, "What's wrong?"

"Cloud," Yuffie grumbled out, "Squall's room. Now."

Aerith raised an eyebrow at Yuffie but didn't question further. Out from the hallway and into the Squall's room she went.

Upon entering, she furrowed her brows worriedly and rushed to Cloud's side.

"What happend!?" She asked while slowly inspecting Leon's body for clues.

"From what Yuffie told me, she was jumping on the bed to wake him up and the force from the jumps bounced him off the bed. And this," he gingerly touched the side of Leon's head where a large knot was beginning to form, "is what I found when I came in. Must've hit his head upon impact with the floor."

He moved away from the bed to let Aerith take over. Soon a warm light radiated off her body and into the palm of her hand. Brows furrowed with concentration and eyes closed, she released the energy from her hand and onto Leon's head. Slowly, but surely, the knot began to go down.

"T-there!" Aerith gasped out. She wavered faintly on her feet and soon lost conciousness completely. Cloud caught her in time and gently cradled the woman in his arms.

Yuffie, who had been watching from the doorway, asked worriedly, "Is she alright, Cloud?"

"She's fine," he replied gruffly while making his way out the door with the woman in his arms and down the hall to the Flower Girl's chamber.

"Aww . . . ," Yuffie kicked an imaginary pebble at her foot and sighed sadly. She was ashamed of herself and new that Cloud was mad at her for causing Aerith's current condition. SHE was the one who had to get Leon injured. And SHE was the cause of Aerith's condition. If it hadn't been for HER, Aerith wouldn't be lying unconcious in her room from using too much energy.

Her expression turned into a scowl.

But wasn't it HIS damn fault for not waking up? Wasn't he injured because HE had made her mad by keeping that stupid smile on his face? The start of everything was HIS fault. Yuffie was just a pawn in HIS game.

Yuffie nodded in satisfaction with her new revelation. Her mouth suddenly widened with a jaw cracking yawn. Yuffie blinked her eyes sleepily in surprise. She hadn't known that she was so tired! Maybe it was the all the energy she put into trying to wake the lion.

Then deciding that a nice nap would do her some good, she walked wearily over to the bed that Leon occupied. And like before, only with different intentions, crawled over his form and lay parallel to him. She knew Leon wouldn't mind her being there, remembering sleepily how they used to share a bed back in Traverse Town. And besides, she was too tired to make it to her own room. With another yawn, she closed her eyes and was soon fast asleep.

* * *

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D i s c l a i m e r s a n d C o p y r i g h t s  
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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


	2. Chapter Two

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter Two  
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_Squall . . . ?_

. . . wake your ass up!

. . . Leon . . .

They don't exist . . .

. . . bumped . . . ead . . .

Rinoa . . . ?

. . . a dream . . .

Alive?

. . . eed a . . . octor . . . ?

Leon!

. . . don't leave me . . .

Squall, wake up!

. . . Yuffie?

Squall?

Leon . . .

Squall!

"Hey, look! He's waking up!"

"Shh!"

"Tch. Just like Squall to get himself messed up like this. Wh--Ow! Damn, man! That was uncalled for!"

"Will you both be quiet."

"But, Qui--!"

"Please!"

_. . . Zell? Quistis?_

". . . hekhekh--oh, ouch! That hurt!"

_Irvine . . . ?_

"Hmph. Payback, man."

"Cut it out right now!"

"Sorry, Quisty girl."

"Pft."

_What's going on?_

"Squall . . . ? How are you?" asked a soft, feminine voice.

"Urgh . . ."

He felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Though, still groggy with sleep, he tried to crack open one of his eyes. Then he quickly closed it at the sudden brightness that seemed to be flooding the room. He groaned and began to speak. But because his tongue felt so thick, his words were just a bunch of gibberish and not coherent to those around him.

"What was that? Dude, speak up!"

". . . nght . . . "

"Did you get that, Quisty?"

"Not a word. Say that again, Squall?"

"--ight . . ."

"Hey! He said 'night'!"

"No . . . I think he said 'light'."

The young man seemed to growl in annoyance.

"Zell, close the blinds. The room is too bright for him."

"Right!"

Behind his eyelids, the red slowly faded away to black, signifying that the room was now dim enough for him to open his eyes. And he did, albeit slow and a bit tiredly. He could make out three blurred shapes, one sitting near him and the other two standing. He blinked his eyes several times for focus. As his vision became more clear and prominent, he found that the one sitting near him was a young woman, with blond hair and blue eyes, and the other two were guys. One of them was taller than the other and had deep, cobalt eyes and long wavy, auburn hair tied in a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. The shorter of the two had spikey, blond hair and, like the woman, had blue eyes, though maybe a shade lighter. On the left side of his face was a thick, lined tattoo that trailed up above his brow, down over his check bone and then stopped just before reaching his jawline. The design reminded him of lightening. Both men were lean and well-built; the tall one less overly so.

The shorter one, with the tattoo, stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Squall slowly blinked and before anyone could speak, he asked, "Where's Yuffie?"

All three persons looked at each other before turning questioning eyes to him.

He continued, "Aerith and Cloud? Where are they?"

Then he realized for the first time that the room they were in was definitely _not_ his bedchamber in Hollow Bastion. Instead of stone walls, there was a smooth, gray, almost white, interior instead. And the bed wasn't the same either. The one he now lie on was a twin sized bed, instead of his double, king sized one.

"Where am I? Who's room is this? What's going on?" He demanded, eyes confused, disconcerted and also a bit angry.

The three looked at him with wide eyes. All were shocked and confused and neither new how to answer or what to say.

"Well?" He implored. A small cough near him brought his attention to the young woman.

"Er . . . we don't know this Yuffie, Aerith and Cloud persons. As for your other questions, you are currently in your room at Balamb Garden. And I'm not exactly sure how to answer your last, because we're just as confused as you are. Sorry," she finished.

The blond guy stepped forward all of the sudden and waved his arms, "What the hell!? You're kidding me right? Squall? What's wrong with you? Do you even remember us? Your friends? Come on, dude! Stop messin' around!"

Squall, was taken a back by his sudden outburst, but then became angry.

"I'm not messing around, damn it! If I were, do you think I'd be asking you questions!?"

The three jumped at his tone of voice. They all looked about ready to bolt at any second.

Squall sighed sullenly. "But I . . . do remember you. All . . . of you," he closed his eyes sadly before looking at each of them. Looking at the young woman at his side and smiled sadly, "Quistis . . . ." The girl's, Quistis, eyes lit up slightly at being acknowledged then nodded with a relieved smile. Squall then turned his head to the two guys standing and nodded to each while addressing them, "Irvine and Zell." But then his eyes became saddened and he looked down at his hands. ". . . But how?" Then his eyes widened again in another revelation and he looked at all three closely before exclaiming, "Why didn't you age!?"

All three looked at each other in surprise before bursting out with laughter.

The tall one, Irvine, stepped forward clutching at his stomach, "That's a good one, Squall!" But as soon as he caught the blank stare from Squall, his laughter died down and the mirth in his eyes suddenly dulled into concern.

"Squall, what do you mean?" Quistis asked, seeming to have caught his placid expression too.

Squall closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair; his fingers grazing the nape of his neck as he did so. His eyes shot open. Slowly, he brought his hands up to his hair and deftly felt around. Three teens looked on with bewildered, yet amused, expressions as he did this. Blue, gray, eyes widened slightly in shock as he brought his hands down. His hair, which was once long and spikey, was now cropped short. By the bangs that hung over his eyes, he knew it couldn't be that short, maybe even a bit long, but this still took him by surprise.

He looked around steadily before his eyes rested on a mirror that seemed to be embedded within the door of a closet. Slowly he stood up on shaky legs and made his way there, ignoring his friends' befuddled eyes as he walked pass them.

Squall now stood before the mirror, eyes blank and face drained of color.

"Uh . . . dude? Squall?" asked the concerned boy named Zell.

Quistis stood up from her seat and over to stand next to Squall. She lifted a hand to touch his shoulder, but before her hand came in contact, he whirled on her. With his hands clasping almost painfully on her upper arms, he stared at her with crazed eyes and a frantic expression. The poor, young woman inhaled sharply but didn't cry out. The two boys stood there with shock clearly written on their faces.

"What's going on!? Why do I look like this!? Quistis, please!" Squall screamed and tightened his grip on her arms, making her cry out in pain.

Irvine moved forward and pulled Quistis out of Squall's death grip and began to soothe the poor girl. Zell, having come out of his stupor, rushed forward and pinned Squall's thrashing body against the wall.

"Squall! What the hell's wrong with you!? Snap out of, damn it!" He yelled.

"ARRRUGH!! NO! This can't be real! It just can't be! I'm dreaming! I know I am! Damn it! Let. Me. GO!"

Squall shoved Zell backward and then punched the blond man square in the face. The force of the blow made Zell double over and grunt with pain, but his eyes glinted with hard determination. And with one swift blow to Squall's abdomen , the young martial artist rendered his friend unconcious. Zell caught him before he hit the floor with one arm while he held a bleeding nose with the other.

Despite the abuse she just indured, Quistis rushed forward and released Zell's burden, making it her own. Seeing her struggle with the body, Irvine went to help her and together they lied Squall, as carefully as they could, down on the bed.

"Kithy. Ith 'e gonna bay othay . . . ?" Zell, struggled to get out while still holding his bruised and bleeding nose. _translation: Quisty. Is he gonna be okay?_

"He'll be fine. Why don't you two go to the infirmary and get Doctor Kadowaki? And get your nose checked while your there too, Zell."

Zell grumbled in reply, heading out the door. Irvine gave her a look as if asking if she'll be alright alone. Quistis gave him a reassuring smile and a nod in answer. With that he headed out the door, following and, most likely, ridiculing his poor, bleeding, friend on the way.

As soon as the door slide shut, she turned her attention back to her unconcious friend and then gasped in surprise.

Squall had come awake and was now staring blankly at the ceiling, but at Quistis' sudden intake of air, he turned his attention to her. Seconds, which seemed like minutes, passed by between the two in silence. Then Squall's lips began to move, but no words came out.

Leaning forward a bit Quistis asked gently, "What did you say, Squall?"

". . . all dead. You . . . dead . . . ," he whisper while still looking at her with that same blank and pale expression; his eyes were dull and empty.

At this, Quistis' face became pale and she gaped at Squall. She practically jumped out of her seat when the door to the room _swoooshed_ open, startling her.

"Quistis!" Exclaimed the doctor as she came in, but at Quistis' sullen look, she quieted down and looked at Squall. Instead of Irvine and Zell accompanying her, she had the girl Rinoa at her side.

Almost instantaneously, Rinoa was at Squall's side, clasping his cool hand within her own.

". . . Rin?" He asked while reaching forward to touch her face, but quickly retracted his hand and gazed at her with sorrowful eyes. He felt that if he touched her, she would disappear from him completely; leaving him cold and all alone again. Seeming to somehow sense his inner torment, Rinoa leaned over and brushed her lips lightly over his. His eyes widened and then watered. She was touching him and wasn't disappearing.

_Maybe this isn't a dream,_ he thought, his heart beating with exhilaration. And as if to prove reality from dream, he leant forward and lifted a hand to run his fingers through her silky strands, deepening the kiss. But for some, strange, reason, he felt as if he were betraying someone while doing so. And he couldn't seem to figure out why.

A small cough was heard from behind, making Squall break the kiss and look over Rinoa's shoulder. Quistis smiled sheepishly, though her eyes seemed to be a little distant and sad, saying, "Kadowaki wants to speak with you, Squall . . . . And, I'll just go check on Zell and Irvine. See you later, Squall. Rinoa." With that she turned and exited, absently rubbing her now bruising biceps as she did.

After she had left, Doctor Kadowaki looked at Rinoa expectantly. Seeing this, the girl shook her dark head, saying, "No. I want to be with him. Please?"

Doctor Kadowaki sighed then nodded. She then turned her attention to Squall.

"How are you, . . . Leon?" She asked hesitantly.

Rinoa raised an eyebrow at this and glanced back and forth between the two. Looking at Squall quizzically, she asked, "Leon? Squall?"

He wave it off with a shake of his head before answering the doctor, "I'm fine. Although, I feel a bit . . . ," he trailed off, trying to find the right word, ". . . abnormal. I don't know. I can't put it into words."

Kadowaki looked to Rinoa, "Rinoa, I would like to speak with Leon privately for a few minutes, if you don't mind."

Thoroughly bemused, Rinoa slowly nodded her head and with a quick peck on Squall's cheek she exited the room.

Squall sat up and then looked at his hands as if they were the most magnificent things in the world. And for a brief moment they were, for there were slightly smaller and slim then the hands he knew at Hollow Bastion. Then he suddenly remembered what had happened the day before and looked into the grey eyes of Doctor Kadowaki.

"I . . . ," he coughed into his hands before continuing, "I . . . I'm s-sorry about yesterday, Doctor Kadowaki." He stopped only a moment to chuckle and shook his head lightly, "I must've acted like a real brat."

The doctor chuckled softly at his apology and his words, though not to make fun of or mock him. She knew that it was hard for him to say things like that. And she knew that he felt a little humilated by the way he had acted. It just wasn't Squall.

"All is forgiven Sq-Leon. There's no need to apologize. Really," she said before sitting in the chair Quistis once occupied.

"About that," he began, "You can call me 'Squall'." The corners of his lips twitched slightly with a smile and he quickly coughed into his hand when he caught himself.

Doctor Kadowaki smiled softly at him, but then remembering why she wanted to talk to him, she became serious again, "Squall, I'd like to ask you a few question. That is . . . if you're willing to answer them. I won't pressure you."

Squall immediately focused all his attention to the middle-aged woman, crossing his arms over his chest. "Go on," he said in an almost authoritative manner.

"Do you remember anything the day before yesterday? If you do, what were you doing and when?" She asked.

Squall thought for a moment with a frown on his face. The scar between his brow crinkling as he did so. He had to think of a way that would not make him sound anymore crazy then he probably already seemed. Not finding a way, he decided to tell her the moments he remembered just before he found his self here.

Squall looked straight into the doctors eyes and said, "You have to swear to me that the information said here will not leave this room."

Doctor Kadowaki blinked before nodding her graying head, "Yes, Squall. I swear."

He looked into her eyes, trying to find any reason at all to doubt her. Finding none, he continued, "The last thing I remember, was playing a record on a record player that I had borrowed that very day. You see, I found this old record in the library of where I live." The doctor opened her mouth to speak but stop when he held up his hand for silence. "And wanting to hear what was on it, I went to a friend of mine by the name of Cid Highwind. He's around your age maybe. Somewhere in his mid-forties. Anyway, he had a record player and let me borrow it upon request. So I went to my room and played it. As I was listening to it, I became tired and went to lie on my bed. I fell asleep . . . ." A moment of silence passed between the two before he continued. "After a while, I heard a voice. I thought it was a friend of mine, coming to wake me up. Her name is Yuffie, by the way." When he mentioned his friend's name, he couldn't help but feel a little lonely without the self-proclaimed 'Great Ninja Yuffie' there to annoy and pester him and his eyes became distant.

Doctor Kadowaki saw this, but didn't say anything. He surprised her when he began to continue once again.

"Yuffie's always there to annoy the hell out of me. Damn kid . . . ," he said with a small, sad, smile. Then finding his nerve once again, "But it wasn't Yuffie's voice I heard. It was Rinoa's . . . . I was beyond shocked and . . . for a moment, I was scared."

The doctor's eyes widened the slightest. To hear Squall say he was scared was a first and would shock anyone here in Garden, but then she kind of felt ashamed of herself. It wasn't like the 'lone wolf' didn't have any feelings. She should know better by now. Composing her self, she asked, "Why, Squall? Why were you scared?"

He unfolded his arms and gripped and ungripped the ends of his shirt. "It was because . . . she died. They--Quistis, Irvine, Zell, everyone--all died before my very eyes and I wasn't able to save them. I was _right_ there and still I wasn't able to save them!" Squall's eyes raged with the beginnings of a storm. He was mad at his self for being helpless that day. "That day. That very day," he continued quietly, "I became . . . Leon."

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W h e r e Y o u B e l o n g  
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Yuffie sat on the edge of her bed, twiddling her thumbs in boredom.

_It can't be my fault_, she thought with a smidgen of worry. 

It's been two whole days since she _accidently_ bounced Leon off his bed and gave him a concussion. Two days and he still hasn't woken up. The poor Ninja Yuffie was becoming bored and irritated. For one, she was irritated because Aerith and Cloud have _grounded_ her. Can you believe that? One simple, _stupid_, mistake got her grounded. Her. An eighteen-year-old girl, practically a full grown woman! Well, _almost_ eighteen, to be exact. And second, she was bored, because she couldn't go outside and train. She asked, no, _begged_ Cloud to let her outside and train with him. But with a cold look and a firm shake of his spikey head, he said 'no'. She was, however, allowed to wander the many hallways of Hollow Bastion. Still, it wasn't the same as running, jumping and punching around outside the castle. Even the Waterway was blocked off to her. Literally. Every lift, gate and entrance that lead there had enormous, heavy stones blocking the way in. She couldn't think of how they got there in the first place either. Maybe the Beast helped out in some way.

Yuffie sighed loudly, "I'm gonna to go insane!"

She stood up and walked out of her room. Standing in the hallway for while, she decided where to go and what to do. Then kicked the ground with a 'hmph' before stomping her way down the hall and stopped. She gaped at the huge, oak door before her. She hadn't planned on coming here! Why'd she come here, of all places? Shrugging her narrow shoulders she opened the big wooden door slowly and hesitantly peeked her head inside, looking around. Her wandering eyes fell upon the comatose figure on the large double bed that could only be Squall Leonhart. No. LEON. Yuffie rolled her eyes and stepped into the chamber. She strolled up to the bed and plopped herself down on the edge.

_It's so quiet and boring around here without him_, Yuffie blinked her eyes and shook her head with a smile. "It was always quiet, now it's just boring."

It seemed so wrong without him always stalking the hallways and then yelling at her to stop calling him 'Squall'. She didn't really know it yet, but deep down she missed the idiot. Who else was she going to bug and pester to no end? Sure, there was Aerith, Cloud and then Cid, but they weren't as much fun as Leon.

Yuffie sighed while leaning back and folding her arms beneath her head. It wasn't long before she felt herself dozing off. Funny, she seemed to get more and more tired lately. Could it be because of Leon? But of course it was! He was her source of entertainment each day. Without her daily entertainment, she became bored and irritatingly tired.

She heard the door open, but couldn't find the strength or will to open her eyes and see who it was. Light footsteps were heard, so thinking that Aerith came to check up on Leon again, Yuffie let her mind relax completely and went to sleep.

Aerith, who had indeed come in to check up on Leon, padded lightly over to his side. Then she blinked her green eyes at the other occupent of the bed--Yuffie. She smiled and sighed softly to herself.

_Poor Yuffie_, she thought.

Then turning her attention to the other occupent, she began to rummage through some herbs she found in the castle's garden. She moved and rearranged the bedside table nearby and set to work. Something, she knew, was keeping Leon from waking up. She knew it wasn't because of the concussion, but because of something else entirely. And she had a small hunch on what it was too. So being the White Mage that she is, she was going to help restore Leon to his normal state by using magic and various forms of spells. It would take a while and the chances of him ever waking up were slim, but someone had to try and she was the one to do it.

Sparkling, emerald eyes glanced briefly at the sleeping shinobe, and couldn't help but smile knowingly to herself. The Great Ninja Yuffie, too, had a roll to play. Though, how big or small, she knew it would help bring Leon out from his comatose state. It had too.

A small knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts and she whirled around with wide eyes. Bright, blue, eyes stared back at her and a slim, golden brow lifted in slight amusement.

"Sorry, Aerith. Didn't mean to scare you," Cloud said while walking up to the pink cladded woman.

Aerith smiled brightly . "You didn't scare me. Just sort of startle me. That's all!" She said with a small giggle. Then turning to him completely she wrapped her lithe arms about Cloud's neck and lightly kissed his lips. Then released him and turned back to her herbs and spells.

Cloud watched her move about, warmth and affection showing in his eyes that he only held for this woman and this woman alone. He knew what she was doing, so didn't ask. He looked to Leon's prone form on the bed and was only slightly surprised to find Yuffie on the bed as well.

"When did she come in?" He asked.

Aerith stared quizzically at him before her eyes widened with realization.

"Oh, I don't know. She was here when I got here," she replied with a shrug of her delicate shoulders. Her long, thick, plait of rich, chocolate, colored hair, swayed gently with her movements as she turned once again to her task.

Cloud came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Aerith sighed and giggled with delight when he began to plant feather-light kisses on the back of her neck and collar bone. He pulled away relunctantly, making Aerith whimper softly and him chuckle at the small pout that formed on her supple lips. He kissed the pout from her lips lightly and said, "I'll be back later. I'm going to go train for a while."

Aerith nodded and at the same time resisted the urge to pull him back into her arms where he belonged.

"You better come back," she said with a teasing tone and smile.

Cloud laughed lightly and turned to exit Leon's bedchamber.

"And do be careful!" Aerith called out to him softly--she didn't want to wake Yuffie.

"I will," he said before vanishing from her sight completely.

She sighed with longing and a bit of regret, but knew friends in need came before pleasure. In her heart anyway. No, not friends. Her family.

"That sly dog," came an giggling, sleepy voice behind her. "I didn't know he had it in him!"

"Yuffie!" Aerith cried out in surprise. She clutched the herbs she held to her chest tightly. Her face became tinged with red while Yuffie grinned knowingly up at the _innocent_ Flower Girl before her.

Regaining what composure she had left, Aerith asking with an almost scolding tone, "Yuffie Kisaragi! How long have you been up?" Then quietly, "How much did you see?"

At that last part, Yuffie rolled on the bed with laughter. The expression on Aerith's face was priceless.

"Aerith, Aerith, Aerith," Yuffie laughed. "I guess you're not so _innocent_ as we all thought you were!" Yuffie emphasized the word 'innocent' and began to laugh again when she caught the flushed expression on Aerith's face. "Oh well, no matter. What are you doing Aerith?" She asked with the most innocent expression after containing herself.

Aerith bristle at the sudden change in topic and glance at the young ninja suspiciously.

"Well?" The ninja implored.

Aerith sighed with a bit of exasperation and told Yuffie what she was going.

"Oooh!" She exclaimed with child-like awe. Then, "I see . . . I think."

Aerith laughed lightly and continued to mix a few herbs together.

"So you're going to cast some spells and stuff and try to get this ole boy up and running again, eh?" Yuffie patted Leon's knee as she referred to him being some broken, down machinary.

"Yes. Well, try and wake him up anyway," Aerith sighed.

This caught Yuffie's attention immediately and she became serious at once.

"Aerith, what do you mean? Try?" She asked.

"Yes, 'try' is the right word. You see, Yuffie, Leon had been kind of distancing his self even more lately. Surely, you've notice. You seem to be around him almost constantly. It's all a matter of whether or not he _wants_ to come back. In the end it's up to him. I can only cast spells and magic to help him along. But even that's not enough," she finished sadly.

Yuffie became a bit downhearted at this and had to ask, "What if he doesn't wake up? Then what, Aerith?"

Aerith turned away and tried to busy herself with the herbs and formulas.

"Then he'll . . . ," Aerith trailed off. She knew Yuffie would catch on. And she did.

"What? No, Aerith. That's . . . That's ridiculous!" Yuffie was now on her feet, making her way toward the door.

"Yuffie . . . ," The Flower Girl started, but couldn't finish.

"No! He can't die! Damn it, I won't let him!" With that Yuffie turned and bolted out the door.

* * *

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S h o u t O u t s  
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Deplora: Thank you for reading. I'm glad you took the time to do so (). I thought it was too, that's why I decided to use it. Thanks again!

Annjirika: Wow. Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. I hope I'll be able to keep you entertained in up coming chapters! All I can say is enjoy your gaming of FF8 and good luck to ya!

Emrelle Elendal: I'm glad you think it is. Thanks!

pingpong867: FF8 is an awesome game, isn't it? And you're right about the Squffies. I like them more than Squall/Rinoa fics too. They're more fun! xD Thanks for the review!

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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


	3. Chapter Three

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter Three  
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W h a t ' s Y o u r R e a l i t y ?  
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The night sky was shimmering and sparkling brightly with the moon, stars and the soft, ethereal glow coming from Balamb Garden. It hummed lightly as it glided across the dark ocean beneath, casting its ghostly image upon its surface.

Up high, over the waves and past the slow turning of the rings that mysteriously kept the Garden afloat, and onto a wide balcony, stood a lone, dark figure. His cropped hair swayed and lifting gently as a salty seabreeze blew by. His cool, gray eyes swam with the light from the full moon above and narrowed slightly as another breeze passed over him.

Squall closed his eyes and spread his arms out wide. From a distance, it might have appeared as if he were going to jump off the balcony, falling to his death, into the ocean. But no, that's not it at all. Every night, since his talk with the Garden's doctor, he came out of his room and into Secret Area of the Balamb's Training Center. Usually there were other students there as well, mostly lovers, but none ever paid any attention to him as he walked by and vice versa. But tonight, there was no one. Just him and his gunblade, Lion Heart. There were always various kinds of monsters getting in his way before he got here, but they were no match for him as he took them down easily.

Here, on the balcony of the Secret Area, which really was no secret at all, he would just stand there and think. Only the quiet murmur of the Garden's engine and the soft crashing of waves beneath disturbed and kept his reality in check. Or . . . what he was beginning to _think_ was his reality.

It seemed everyday, every waking moment, new memories of this life rushed in and filled his head. Then after would come the terrible migranes that pounded and screamed in his ears. As each day passed, the man known in another world as "Leon" faded away--as well as his memories of Hollow Bastion. His home and his family.

Though he could only vaguely remember the reason why he always came here. He only knew that he had to remember something . . . or someone. Everytime he tried to grasp a memory or image of someone it would quickly vanish and then he would be standing there wondering what the hell he was trying to recall. Every once in a while, the image of a beautiful, smiling girl flashed before his eyes and in a soft voice she would say his name, calling out to him. She always told him to "come back" or "come home."

But wasn't he already home? The girl was familiar to him and her name was always at the tip of his tongue, but like all his other memories it slipped him by. Who was this girl? Was she anything to him at all? If so, then what role did she play in the life that he so tried to remember each coming day?

The poor guy was so deep in thought that he didn't hear the sound of foot steps coming up behind him until a person's deep voice reverbated softly to his ears.

"Hey. What are you doing here?"

Squall slowly let his arms fall back to his sides before calmly turning to face the new comer. His stormy eyes meet those of deep blue with a tiny hint of amethyst. It was Irvine. He stood just a few feet away, shouldering his rifle Exeter, decked out in his usual cowboy attire.

"I could ask the same of you, Kinneas," Squall said with a raise of his brow. "Running another errand for Rin . . . _again_?"

"She's onl--" Irvine began, but was quickly cut off by Squall.

"Only worried about me. Yes, I know that. And she doesn't have to be," he replied with slight irritation. "None of you do," he added softly.

Silence was exchanged between the two before Irvine, once again, broke it.

"Squall, I know you're not one for words, but for once, could you please confide in someone other than yourself?" The cowboy asked with a hint of sadness coming into his eyes. "It's kinda depressing, ya know? Always mopping around, keeping things inside like you do."

Having turned his back on his friend and now leaning on the railing, Squall smirked lightly.

"She used to say that. The little brat . . . ," he whispered to himself.

Maybe it was the silence on the balcony, or something, because Irvine stared at his friend quizzically before asking:

"Who? What little brat?"

"Yuffie . . . ," he said.

Her name had passed through his lips before he even knew it and his eyes widened in surprise once it did.

The girl's face that kept appearing to him. The voice. It was _hers_! That name. Yuffie . . . .

A weird sensation suddenly creeped up on him and Squall doubled over and vomited. His head began to throb painfully and his vision blurred to where he couldn't place where he stood and ended up falling over. He heard someone call out his name as his world became black.

* * *

_I never sang my songs_

On the stage, on my ownI never said my wordsWishing they would be heardThose words are what he woke up too; someone singing them in a familiar melody. A soothingly, beautiful voice.

_I saw you smiling at me_

Was it real or just my fantasyYou'd always be there in the cornerOf this tiny little bar_Who . . . ?_ He thought, his eyes fluttering open. His gaze landed on a middle-aged man with long, graying, black hair sleeping in a chair peacefully beside him. His hair was pulled back in a low ponytail that rested at the nape of his neck. He wore casual looking clothes and a couple of old, silver dogtags hanging from around his neck. His features really didn't look that old, just a few laugh lines around his mouth and squint lines on the sides of his eyes. The only thing that betrayed his old age was his hair. Obviously, this wasn't the person singing the nice song as it continued on the other side of him.

_So let me come to you_

Close as I want to beClose enough for meTo feel your heart beating fa--It was cut off suddenly as the voice that had been singing it exclaimed, "Oh! You're awake!"

His eyes wandered over and up to a dark-eyed woman. She was young and fairly beautiful with short, chin length, brown hair and wide, brown eyes. She was wearing a light blue, sleeveless top and a long, pale skirt. The green shaw, which was held loosely by her lithe arms, finished off her outfit nicely, giving her a laid back and casual look.

Squall was a bit disappointed that she didn't finish the song, but didn't press her to do so. He watched her walk around the bed he was lying on and tap the sleeping man lightly on the head.

"Uncle! Uncle 'Guna!" She whispered loudly in a cheerful voice.

The man mumbled something incoherently under his breath while swatting her hand away. The woman sighed and smiled at Squall before trying once again to wake the man.

"Uncle 'Guna! Wake up!" She said, this time in a normal tone of voice. But while she did this, she began to tickle the man's sides. The man, whom the woman called "Guna," coughed before waking into a fit of deep laughter.

Squall looked on at the two with raised eyebrows, thinking them both clinicly insane people.

Finally, after several moments of catching his breath, the man blinked his eyes open and stared up at the woman sternly. Or what he thought to be a stern stare. From Squall's point of view, the man just looked ridiculous with his narrowed eyes and goofy smile.

"Elle! That was uncalled for. Why couldn't you have woken me up in a normal fashion?" He asked while poking the woman lightly in the side, making her jump back and turn away with a squeal.

"Well, I did. Or should I say 'tried'! But you must've been snoring too loudly to hear me," she retorted lightly, playfully sticking her tongue out at the man before her.

The man snorted lightly, grumbling under his breath. "I don't snore . . . ," he mumbled out. He then turned to Squall with smiling, aqua colored eyes.

At this, Squall narrowed his eyes slightly at the man, muttering, "Who are you?"

A sharp intake of breath brought his eyes onto the woman, who held a hand over her mouth in shock. When he returned his gaze back to the man beside him, he found him looking at him incredulously. All play and cheerfulness was gone from his eyes as he stared down at the young man before him.

"Squall? What do you mean 'Who are you'? I'm . . . I'm you father," said the man. From the horrified expression that suddenly turned up on the young man's face, did the older man realize it was a mistake saying so.

Squall began to hyperventilate, his mouth forming the word "no" as he covered his face with his hands.

The man tried his best to calm his son down, but was shoved aside roughly.

"Ellone! Get Kadowaki in here! Hurry!" He yelled out to the woman, whose eyes were wide and tearful. She nodded her head frantically and rushed out of the small room to get the doctor.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the _real_ world, Yuffie was nervously dancing from foot to foot while ringing her hands. Her face was pale and her eyes were beginning to water. She was watching Aerith move about Leon's bed casting spells and at the same time trying to pump air into the man's lungs.The two were just sitting in his room while quietly talking about Leon's condition, when he suddenly began to breathe almost violently.

Yuffie had no clue as to what was happening and knew she'd only get in the way of Aerith if she tried helping, so she just stood by watching helplessly.

_Why is this happening to him!?_ She thought fearfully. _None of this is fair! He doesn't deserve this!_

Yuffie climbed on top his massive bed and grabbed hold on his hand, squeezing it gently.

When she heard him inhale, she became happy, thinking that her friend was finally waking up. But she was dead wrong. She didn't know that his condition was worsening and that he was slowly dying before her very eyes. Her hold on his hand tightened as she leaned over whispering over and over for him to please get better into his ear.

While in his room alone, Yuffie did this often, whispering in his ear to get better and come back home. Even though she knew that he couldn't hear her, she just all of the sudden started talking to him as if he were awake and listening to her endless chatter. It just proved that she cared about her friend deeply, even if she didn't take notice to it right away.

Yuffie couldn't believe this was happening to him. He was a lion. Fierce, proud, strong and invincible. That's how she saw him in her eyes. She just couldn't imagine something like this happening to him and yet here he was, practically killing himself with mental trauma.

Though all of this scared the shit out of her, she was pissed at this man whom she always thought highly of since early childhood.

Where was the lion now? Where has he disappeared off to?

During all of this, Aerith managed to finally calm him down and got him to breath normally once again. Or as normally as he was breathing in his comatose state, which he practically wasn't. If you were standing from the doorway, you would think he was dead by his stillness, but if you got close enough, you could see his chest raising with every intake of air slightly.

Yuffie smiled and let out a rush of air from her lungs that she hadn't known to be holding. For a moment, she thought that she was going to lose him, but soon her confidence in him came back. She just _knew_ he was going to get better soon. How? She didn't know. A gut feeling perhaps?

The ninja turned her gaze over to Aerith and found her leaning wearily against the wall.

_Must've over done the spell casting again_, the girl thought, feeling a small tinge of sympathy for the young woman.

"You should go rest a while, Aerith. You don't look too good," Yuffie said, eyeing the woman worriedly.

The woman lifted an arm to wave the girl off, but found she was too exhausted and let it drop back down to her side. Aerith gave Yuffie a small smile of gratitude and a nod.

"I think I'll do just that, Yuffie," she replied. She stood upright and wavered on her feet for a bit before regaining some strength and her balance and walked towards the door. When she got there she hesitated and then turned to Yuffie with a worried expression.

"Maybe I should st--"

"Go," Yuffie said firmly. Then grinning widely, she said, "I'll take care of him, Aerith! Don't worry!" The grin turned into a smirk, "Why don't you have Cloud give you a nice massage, eh?"

At this, the Flower Girl's face glowed bright red and she glared at the snickering shinobe over her shoulder before stomping out the door.

"Heh heh heh."

After her friend left, Yuffie lied herself down next to Leon. She propped herself up on her elbows and studied his handsome features. She then reached over and brushed a lock of his hair out of his eyes before reaching down to grab the hand she had been holding earlier.

"Come home soon, Squall. It's not the same without you around here," she whispered, letting her eyes close in sleep.

Little did the ninja know, a pair of sad, emerald eyes watched her from the open doorway.

_Soon, Yuffie_, the Flower Girl thought. _You'll go to him soon._

She reached forward and quietly closed the door with a soft _click_ before heading to her own room to rest.

* * *

Back in the _dream world_ . . . .

Laguna held Ellone's body close to his own as Doctor Kadowaki examined his son.

She sighed loudly and turned to leave, but not before being stopped by a firm hand.

Laguna looked at the aging woman with sad, almost pleading eyes. "What's wrong with him?" He asked softly.

The older woman shook her head sadly, before motioning for him to follow her.

"Let's not discuss this here, Mister President. If you would, please follow me to my office," she replied gently.

Laguna nodded his head and moved to follow but was stopped by Ellone, whose feet didn't seem to want to move.

The doctor left the two alone with a look of understanding and waited for the man to come when he wanted.

"What's the matter, Elle?" He asked, putting a hand on top the young woman's head.

"It's nothing, Uncle. I just want to stay here with Squall a bit longer. You can tell me what the doctor says later, alright?" She replied softly with a small smile. Her eyes appeared to be bright with tears.

Laguna smiled down at her and turned to leave, ruffling Ellone's short hair awry like he always did when she was little. She laughed lightly and swatted his hand away before reaching up to set her hair right again.

"I hate when you do that, 'Guna," Ellone said with a pout.

Laguna only made a silly face at her before turning to leave the room.

"Watch over him for me, Elle," he said softly, exiting out the door.

"Of course," she whispered to herself, knowing he didn't hear her.

She then turned to the sleeping boy on the nearby cot and sat on the edge of it beside him. She knew she could easily find out what was wrong with him by reaching into his mind with her powers, but decided against it. She didn't want to do such a thing without his consent; it would be mind rape.

_My dear little brother_, she thought sadly. _What happened to you?_

She bent herself over his form and lightly pressed her lips to his forehead. Pulling away, Ellone sat there, just keeping the boy company, while gently brushing his hair back in a motherly fashion.

Her last thoughts: _I won't leave you all alone again. This time I'll be here for you._

* * *

Laguna sat himself in front of the elder woman's desk and patiently waited for her to tell him what was wrong with his engimatic son.

"Well, Mister President, I don't know where to start," she said, her voice soft and sorrowful.

"Can't you just tell me what's wrong with him?" The Esthar President, Laguna asked, furrowing his brows.

The doctor shook her, "I'm afraid it's not that simple, Sir. Squall has . . . not been his self these past two weeks. It's kind of like when he was trap in the Time Compression. He didn't know where to go. He became lost and then slowly started to loose his memories. It was a good thing Rinoa got to him before he was lost to us completely. He would have been trapped there forever."

"Yeah, I got that down, Doc," Laguna replied with a wave of his hand. "But what does this have to do with his condition?"

"I'm not quite sure as of yet. I do know that he lost some of his vital memories. So far, he seems to remember his childhood friends, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, Irvine and even Rinoa," she said. Then at the man's hopeful look, she continued, "But all of these memories he has now are of those that happened way before the battle against Ultimecia."

Laguna looked chestfalled and woman across couldn't help but give the man a look of sympathy.

"So . . . he wouldn't remember me then or Elle," he mumbled sadly.

"There's more," she continued. "Squall seems to be carrying memories of another lifetime, or world. When I talked to him the week before, he told me of this life he had in a place he called "Hollow Bastion." I wrote most of what he told me down, if you'd like to have a look at them." She seemed to reach down for something and then came up with a worn, brown portfolio in her hands. She opened it and shifted through the papers it contained before pulling out and handing him a small stack of paper bound together by a paperclip.

As soon as the papers were in his hands, he began to read over the hasty, yet neatly written passages carefully. His eyes widened and he turned his gaze back to the woman across him.

"Good Hyne!" He exclaimed incredulously. "Twenty-six!? But Squall's only eighteen, Kadowaki!!"

"Yes, I know. In my years as a doctor, here at Balamb, I've never seen any of the other kids come down with something like this. It's very . . . unusual," she stated with a calm air. 

"And he all thinks this is some kind of dream? This is all really weird!" He sighed with a slight grimace.

The woman sighed wearily, saying, "I think it might be best, if you took him to Esthar, Mister President. He could get better treatment there than he can here. As much as I'd like Squall to recover, I'm afraid I can't give him what he needs. I'll inform Cid about all this. I'm sure he'll understand."

The aging President of the Estharian Nation sighed remorsefully before nodding his head in silent agreement.

_Squall's not going to like this. He never really liked Esthar City very much_, he thought with a slight cringe. _I'll have to keep him away from that crazy bastard Odine._

Laguna slowly made his way back to the room Squall was in and as he drew closer, he heard Ellone's voice singing once again in that sweet melody of hers.

_Darling, so there you are_

With that look on your faceAs if you're never hurtAs if you're never downHe closed his eyes against oncoming tears as the image of a beautiful, long-haired brunette came wavering into his mind.

_ Shall I be the one for you_

Who pinches you softly but sureIf frown is shown thenI will know that you are no dreamer_Hyne, I wish you were here, Raine. You'd know how to deal with this,_ he thought. A small chuckle escape through his lips and a corners of his mouth twitched up into a smile. _Little Elle's all grown up now and she sings your favorite song beautifully._

Laguna didn't bother entering his son's room just yet, having come too overwhelmed with emotions. He instead pulled a chair up to sit on and listened to the song filtering through the door.

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"Are you sure about this, Aerith? She's going to be really pissed off when she wakes up," Cloud muttered to his Flower Girl.

The two were walking silently to Leon's room from the dinning room after they had eaten. Both stumbling occasionally as they silently tread their way with in the dark passage. Cloud sighed with a bit a frustration and seemed to whimper at the woman before him, whose grip on his wrist tugged at him to follow her relentlessly.

"Yes, Cloud, I know that!" She whispered harshly under her breath. Then giggling lightly to herself, "And don't be such a baby!"

The spikey haired man stopped suddenly, making the young woman jerk back in surprise and yelp as she flew face first into his chest. The hallway was pretty dark and didn't have nearly enough light to see where they were going, but Aerith caught the glint in Cloud's glowing blue eyes as she looked up.

Though she couldn't make out the rest of his face in the dark, she knew he was smirking down at her.

"You know, Aerith," he whispered huskily, his breath caressing her face gently, "I kind of like having you in my arms this way."

Aerith became flustered and began to squirm in the man's arms. The blond's smirk grew into a grin and then he began to chuckle at the woman's discomfort. Moments later, though relunctant to do so, as he began to feel a bit sorry for the woman in his arms, he released her.

Aerith bristled and punched his arm with a scowl.

"Cloud Strife! Don't ever do that to me again," she seethed quietly under her breath.

The young man grunted in reply while absently rubbing his arm where the little vixen had hit him.

_Aerith may appear frail on the outside, but damn . . . _, he thought with a wince.

"OK, Aerith. I'm sorry," he sighed. "You have one hell of a fist. You made of iron or something?"

The woman eyes twinkled deviously before replying, "Care to find out?"

Unlike Aerith, Cloud could see just fine in the dark and caught the mysterious glimmer in her emerald eyes.

". . . Depends . . . ," he said with a bit of caution, then smiled widely. "You won't hurt me too badly, will you?"

She flushed and began to stammer, "U-um . . . I . . . I--Arrgh! Cloud!"

Just for that remark, he received another punch on his arm. He grimaced when he realized it was in the same spot where she hit him before.

"Now come on. We have to get this done before she wakes up!" she said, turning on her heals and storming the rest of the way to Leon's room.

A golden brow lifted at her reaction. _Is she mad?_ He thought, continuing to follow the pink clad woman.

Once he had caught up to her, he wrapped his strong arms around her body, hugging her close to his warmth. He kissed the top of her head while apologizing.

The Flower Girl leaned back into his arms and giggled lightly. "What? You think I'm angry at you?"

"Well . . . yeah," he replied softly.

"You silly! Well, embarrassed maybe, but not angry," she said. She patted his arms gently before stepping out of his warm embrace. "Now let's get this done before it's too late."

Cloud smiled inwardily to his self, happy that his little Flower Girl wasn't mad him, before turning serious at the matter at hand.

For the past two weeks, Aerith had been preparing a new spell that would hopefully bring their friend Leon back. But she couldn't cast the spell alone, so to help, Cloud volunteered to offer her his support and energy as she cast the spell onto the comatose man and the young shinobe.

Well, what did Yuffie have to do with any of this?

Through her subconscious, Aerith and Cloud are going to try and send Yuffie into the Leon's mind. Since Yuffie cared for Leon and was closer to him than anyone else, they both knew that the ninja would fulfill and get things done. If she could some how convince Leon--where ever he was--to come back to the real world, then Aerith can resurrect the man from the castle. They knew it was going to be hard on the young girl, but knew that she was the only one in the castle able to do it.

So now, Squall Leonhart's fate now rested within the hands of Yuffie Kisaragi.

Whether the man decides to come back of his own will or not, is up to him however.

* * *

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**To those that have already read this before!** I moved all my character notes of the FF8 characters and stuff to a different page that can now be found at:

**http://ff8.amekaze.net/**. 

I also uploaded some images, so that you know what the characters look like. So if you're one of those people that are confused by the story, then please go there to find some helpful info. Sorry for not posting a new chapter! I'll make up for that real soon! I re-read the chapters and found that there were some major grammatical errors that I had overlooked and so I went back to edit and then re-posted them. Again, I'm sorry! Like I said, I'll make it up to you. Maybe even extend the next chapter a few pages more? How's that sound? Anyway, please review and thanks for reading....again.

- - N a t s u

Thanks to these amesome people that reviewed or left a comment for Chapter Two:  
SunMoon,EarthSky, Deplora, Yuleen75, Emrelle Elendal, ZTX, immortalbreeze04 and October Breeze! Thank you!!

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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


	4. Chapter Four

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter Four  
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_He was lost. Forever walking on and on with no path to follow and no clue as to where to go. Every muscle in his body seemed to burn with exhaustion and his limbs ached dully with every step he took. The gray sky around him made his eyes cross tiredly from staring into it for too long. It seemed to shift gleefully for fulfilling its purpose, making him become even more entangled within this time warp of complete solitude._

Where am I? _He thought wearily. He winced after when he found that even his own thoughts seem to ricochet off the walls of his mind, creating an echo that rang loudly within his ears._

You promised that we would meet there . . . .

Where am I supposed to go? _He looked around and around, but all he saw was the same stretch of rocky desert in each and every direction he turned. He knew he had to be somewhere, but just couldn't place where he was supposed to be and which direction he was to go._

Under the stars with the moon shining down on us. Remember?

What am I looking for . . . ? _He stopped for a few moments to contemplate this before continuing on. Several times he caught himself stumbling idly back and forth and heard his boots ridgedly scraping the ground. For a brief moment, he thought he saw the outline of a face, but the big blury blob that swirled before it got in the way of him seeing who it could possibly be. His eyes narrowed into slits as he tried to dwell more deeply into the thought._ Who . . . ?

Yes . . . . You promised me. Remember the field of flowers and petals dancing around us?

_He stopped suddenly, his eyes wandering wearily before him with a very confused expression. Wasn't he just walking on an endless plain of desert?_

He stared hard into the swirling vortex before him curiously. Less than two inches from where he now stood was a sharp edge that could quite easily be passed off as a cliff. If he took a step futher, he'd go falling into an endless abyss of nothingness. He sighed at his misfortune and turned around. Looks like he'd have to find a new path to follow.

Not that there was _one to begin with._

He stopped himself abruptly in midstep, almost stumbling off the cliff and to his demise as he did. Well, it wasn't exactly a cliff anymore. The gray warping mist around him now boxed him in, leaving only a small portion of rocky land to stand on. He took a few steps forward then backed away from the wall of mist. This time he did stumble down. But at this point, he really didn't give a damn at whether or not he did fall to his death.

He'd most likely die from starvation anyway.

He was lucky though. Instead of falling indefinitely into the gray warphole around him, his rump came in contact with the rocky ground sharply. He hissed at the pain that shot from his tailbone, leaving an uncomfortable tingling sensation after it had passed.

He tried several times to stand, only to fall back on his hide and curse. Finally realizing his efforts were in vain, he gave up. Locks of silky, brown hair came forth from behind his ears and brushed against his cheeks as he bowed his head, appearing to have fallen asleep. The only thing that could be heard was the soft in and outtake of air as he breathe quietly.

High above, the mist parted briefly to let a single, white feather pass through their walls gently before closing back up again. The boy's eyes opened slightly and he looked around. He felt a sudden change in atmosphere, though slight it was. Then as if the feather was calling to him in a silent hymn, he slowly looked up and regarded it with tired gray eyes. It seemed to have come with a purpose as he watched it softly waltz its way to him. His arm screamed in protest when he lifted it up suddenly and stretched it out above him. He ignored the numb, prickly feeling in his fingers as his blood rushed down his arm from the movement. As soon as it came within reach, his long, gloved fingers closed around its softness.

. . . remember . . . .__

Various forms of images flashed before his eyes, all greatly distorted and moving by him too fast for his tired eyes to keep up with. Then everything stopped.

His breath caught in his throat when he realized that he was no longer sitting helplessly on the ground, but instead stood upright between two dark-haired women. He knew them both, but could not place their names nor where they came from. Then both began to speak to him at the same time--telling him different things. One said something about a promise and the other told him to come back home. They told him many other things. Things that he couldn't take in all at once. But something that one of them said, for sure, penetrated his mind and that was . . . .

He lied still on the unforgiving plains of the desert. Whether or not it was in death or sleep, something became vaguely apparent. Down and over the curve of his left cheek bone did a lonely tear fall, leaving a long, silvery trail in its wake.

* * *

"You know, I've noticed you've been sleeping an awful lot lately."

Squall cocked his head slightly at the sound of the soft voice before turning his body completely around in acknowledgement. He gave a half-smile when he came face to face with his big Sis Ellone.

"You're right. Though, there really isn't much else to do when you're practically kept under lock and key," he stated somewhat bitterly.

As the doctor of Balamb Garden suggested a couple days ago, Laguna and Ellone brought Squall to Esthar City to receive special treatment to help regain his lost memories. As soon as they were able, they (along with Zell and Rinoa) packed and left Balamb while Squall still slept. Everyone was a bit wary of him when he first awoke and realized he was no longer in Garden, but in a cozy fourpost bed in Esthar's Presidential Palace. To say that he was upset, was a serious understatement. The brunet was furious, though the next couple days gave his temper time to cool to a bittersweet resentment.

Ellone stood before him calmly, her gaze unwavering. "I know you're still a bit angry at me and Uncle Laguna," she started, taking a step toward him, "but please know that we did this because we care about you and that we want to help you. I'm happy that you're slowly regaining your memories on your own, but we just wanted to make sure that you will be all right." She brought a hand up and cupped his face gently with one hand. "When Uncle Laguna and I went to see you in Balamb, you were passed out cold in the infirmary. And when you woke up, you didn't recognize either one of us and that scared me."

Squall touched the hand on his face and then looked into Ellone's shining, almond-shaped eyes.

"I'm sorry, Sis," he whispered. "But there really is nothing that you need to be worrying yourself about." He turned away from her, walking over to sit on the edge of his bed. He propped his elbows on his knees and brought his hands up to the nape of his neck, locking his fingers together tightly. He felt the bed move down a bit, signifying that his sister was now sitting next to him.

She nudged his side lightly with her elbow. "Hey, do you remember that time when we were up in space?" She asked gently. A small smile appearing on her lips as she glanced at him from her corner of her eye. She knew what she was doing. Since he first woke up, she would say little parts of his memories to him offhandly, so that he wouldn't really catch on to what she was doing. But her small efforts were well paid off as he began to remember more and more as time goes by.

Squall was silent for a long moment before he answered. "It's indistinguishable, but the memories are there," he replied, his voice a bit muffled as he didn't look up or lift his head.

Ellone grinned happily, satisfied at his given answer. She patted his back soothingly before standing up and straightening out her skirt.

"Don't think too much about it, Squall," she said, tossing a smile over her shoulder as she made her way to the room's double doors. "No, it's better if you don't think about them at all. You have all the time in the world to remember, so don't you go and kill yourself over it."

Squall looked up and regarded his adopted sister with a strange look before looking down at his feet. "Whatever."

Ellone laughed melodically as she made her exit. She nearly collided into the young, dark-haired adolescent that was Rinoa.

"Oh! Excuse me, Miss Heartilly. I didn't see you coming," Ellone apologized.

Rinoa smiled up at the woman. "S'okay. I'm afraid I didn't see you either," she said, then brought her hand up to reveal a couple of neatly folded parchments. "Letters from Selphie and Quistis back at Balamb," she answered hurriedly at Ellone's askant look.

Ellone's eyes seemed to have lit up with a new light at the mention of the two names. "Quisty and Sefie? Sending letters so soon already?" She asked. Then politely, "How are they doing?"

Rinoa gently pulled the taller woman to a nearby bench in the large hallway. When both were seated and comfortable, she answered, telling all of what her two good friend wrote her. When she came back to Selphie's letter, Rinoa frowned. Taking note of this Ellone asked what was wrong. Rinoa stared and re-read a passage in the letter, making sure she was reading it correctly before answering.

"I'm not quite sure . . . ," she replied. She shook her head. "I mean, nothing. Nothing's wrong. It's just . . . I read what Selphie wrote and I can't believe it."

Ellone looked at the girl expectantly, waiting for her to go on and fill her in, but when she didn't, she asked, "What is it?"

Rinoa slowly looked from the letter in her hands to Ellone's chocolate brown eyes.

"Seifer . . . . He's back," she said softly, an almost blank expression on her face.

Ellone's eyes widened at the name.

_Seifer . . . ? Little Seifer?_

All Ellone could picture in her mind's eye was a little, blond, green-eyed boy she knew back in her days at the orphanage. That image, however, was quickly replaced by a cold and ruthless young man that once held her captive just the year before. _But wasn't he . . . ?_

Ellone faced Rinoa and put her hands on the girl's shoulders. "But, Rinoa, wasn't he possessed by Ultimecia? He was brainwashed, right?"

Before Rinoa could open her mouth and answer, the door to Squall's room opened with a swoosh, silencely whatever she was about to say.

Squall stood in the doorway with a placid expression. Ellone stood up and took a step toward him.

"He _was_ brainwashed," he said.

Rinoa stood up, her eyes blazing slightly. "But he tried to kill me, Squall! You were there when it happened! Not only that, but before he forced me to merge with Sorceress Adel, he _knew_ what I was to him. He _knew_, Squall!" She covered her eyes with the back of her hand and let a choked sob pass through her parted lips.

Squall looked at Ellone, who was a bit shocked at the emotion that was just displayed before her. She looked back at him with sorrowful eyes.

Rinoa hastily wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry," she muttered before running off.

As soon as the girl was out of ear shot, Ellone plopped back down on the bench, a hand held to her forehead. "What just happened?" She asked, though she really wasn't expecting an answer.

"I can understand a little of what she's feeling right now," Squall said before sitting himself down beside her.

"How? Why did she get so emotional just now?" She asked gently, leaning back against the wall behind her.

Squall ran a hand through his short hair. He frowned.

_Strange . . . _, he mused, _I feel as if something's missing._

He brought his hands before his face and began to idly flex his fingers.

"Seifer . . . was Rinoa's boyfriend . . . before I was," he stated, eyes far off and distant. "She told me--a while after Ultimecia's defeat--of how scared she felt when Seifer handed her over to Adel." He sighed. "I think she still had feelings for him when that happened. Even if it was just a _little_ of what she felt for him back when they were together. When he did that, I think it broke her heart."

Ellone stared wide-eyed at him. _Does he even realize what he's saying?_ She bit the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. _He's remembering . . . ._

"She loved him, I think." He leaned forward. Dark locks of hair fell forward, shrouding his eyes from view. The corner of his lips quirked up into a tiny smirk. "It's all kind of funny, somehow."

Ellone tilted her head to the side. "What is?" She asked.

A chuckle passed through his lips. "This. All of this."

A slim brow rose in response.

He lifted his dark head up and looked her straight in the eyes.

"I remember . . . . Everything."

* * *

Down at the beach back at Balamb, a boy and girl walked beside each other. Together they laughed as they strolled along, the cold water of the ocean gently lapping at their bare feet. The two appeared to be in no hurry as the sun slowly sank behind the wide stretch of ocean. Though they may have appeared to be lovers at first glance, they were really siblings. Fraternal twins at that.

The girl broke away from her brother's side. She ran up a ways, then stopped, facing the ocean. Her blue eyes narrowed, staring straight into the setting sun. A large smile formed on her face and motioned her brother to her, beaming.

"Oy Lane! Isn't the sunset beautiful?" She asked, sighing contently.

Her brother--Lane--calmly walked up beside her and wrapped an arm loosely about his twins narrow shoulders. He watched the subtle highlights the sun reflected in her multicolored hair before transitting his gaze over the ocean.

"Yeah. It is," he replied softly. His short ebony locks swayed and brushed against his forehead as a warm breeze blew by. "It feels good to be back on land again."

His sister nodded in agreement. She tucked a stray violet and red streaked lock behind her pierced ear, the colors blending nicely with the ebony of her hair.

The two are students at Balamb Garden, both enrolled at the age of nine. Though they were trained, schooled, and stayed within the dormitory, they were born in the town not far from where they were currently. In fact, you could see the small town just along the coastline, a couple miles in the distance. The two had just came from there, having gone to visit an old relative, and were on their way back to Garden. Obviously, the two were sidetracked, as the girl, whose name is Taeon, wanted to fight a couple monsters and have a little fun on the beach. They seemed to have been there for hours, as it had been a little past noon when they left Balamb Town.

Like them, everyone back at Balamb Garden were extremely happy to be back on solid ground again. Many had become a bit sick for their home island and even put in Request Forms to return back home in to the Lieutenant Commander Xu Lei, who served as a sort of secretary when not on battlefield duty and sometimes student counsel. Though it really wasn't the request by the students and SeeDs that won out, but instead the unexpected arrival of the President of Esthar Laguna Loire. In the end, it really didn't matter why they had returned, but that they did and that made everyone happy.

Having the privilege to do so, most SeeD's (that have families off the island) take a leave of two weeks vacation, though they have to put in a notice and get approved beforehand by the two heads of the ship: Commander and Lieutenant Commander. But since the Commander of the ship "mysteriously" disappeared, none were able to take advantage of that privilege.

Most of the students and SeeDs originated from Balamb Town and since it was real close to Garden, they didn't have to put in a notice. Though it was made clear by the Headmaster and Garden Staff that the students be back and in their dorm rooms before curfew. The SeeDs could stay as long as they want until duty called them back to Garden or until Garden became mobile once again.

With the latter in mind, Lane took his twin by the arm and gently pulled her toward their discarded shoes. She was relunctant at first, but resigned with a sigh, pouting only slightly as she tugged her shoes on. Having seen this, Lane patted her knee before standing up.

"We'll come back tomorrow, Tae," he said, a kind smile forming on his lips.

Taeon muttered under her breath while standing up, dusting off sand from her backside.

"You know, sometimes I wonder if maybe _you_ should have been born first. Hyne knows you're the ever responsible one!"

Lane scratched the nape of his neck as he laughed lightly, a faint blush spreading across his nose and cheeks.

It was true. Out of the two, Lane was the more reserved, quiet type, while his older twin (by seven minutes) sister was more outgoing and energetic.

Instead of retorting and saving face, he kept quiet. He really wasn't the type to argue or fight with a woman, even if it was his own sister. It just wasn't in him. As a small child, he was often picked on or beat up by fellow students for being too kind and quiet. Taeon would often seek out his harrassers and punish them with her hard narrow fist. She always did get in trouble, but she didn't care. She loved her brother too much and would not let any harm come to him. Now that they are older and have gained martial arts skills that could even put the famous Zell Dincht to shame, nobody dare mess with them.

Lane looked to sky, which was now blanketed by stars, and sighed. A sadness shown in his eyes for a moment as he gazed into the dark void.

Nearby, Taeon watched him. She knew what he was thinking about, or rather _who_, and it tore at her heart to see him like this. She looked away for a moment, trying to think quickly for some kind of distraction.

Too lost in her little brainstorm, she didn't see the small flash of light in the sky nor the widening of her brother's eyes as he watched the light stream from the sky and crash into the ocean with a small splash. It wasn't long after that she realized that she was all alone in the darkness with her brother to be found nowhere in sight.

"What in Ifrit's Hell . . . ? Lane! Where'd you go!?" She called out, her voice echoing into the darkness. A long while passed and she slowly became slightly panicky when she didn't get a response. She shook her head, taking off in a mad sprint.

_Damn you, Lane!_ She thought, turning back toward the ocean and running along the coastline.

- - -

Completely unaware of his sister's frantic searching and calling of his name, Lane was swimming far out into the ocean. He stopped a little more than one-forth of a mile from the shoreline and dove deep beneath the dark surface of the ocean.

_It was here. I know it was!_ He thought as he felt around the depths with the tips of his fingers. _It looked almost human! But that can't be possible . . . . An angel maybe?_ If he weren't holding his breath under water, he would have laughed at the thought. _Heh, yeah right!_

His arm brushed against something soft, making him release a stream of air bubbles out of his mouth in shock. It was too dark to see anything in the waters, but trusting his instincts, he reached out blindly until his hands came into contact with something soft and slightly warm. He grabbed onto it and kicked his legs almost desperately, making his way toward the surface. In Balamb, Lane is well known to be the best swimmer as well as deep sea diver. He won many medals and was even offered the job to teach the junior classmen how to swim once he graduated. Never in all in his life has he ever done anything full hardy such as having the sudden urge to dive after an unknown object. He left that catagory to his sister.

Lane gasped for air when he finally broke the surface, almost completely drained from the lack of air and swim. It took a little more out of him when he pulled his find up to the surface with him. His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he realized it was human.

"What the . . . ."

"LANE MIGUEL MICHAELS!! WHERE ARE YOOOOOOOUUU!?"

He blanched slightly at the sound of his sisters yell. _Hyne, she can be_ extremely _loud sometimes._

Lane hefted the person in his arms as best he could and began to deftly kick his legs. As he made his way back to shore and his sister, he began to realize that he seemed to be getting futher and futher away from his destination than closer.

"Damn currents!" He cursed silently. His arms felt about ready to fall off from the amount of effort he was putting into moving them. It was a good thing he remember to take off his shirt and shoes before he jumped into the ocean. He would have been even more weighed down than he was already.

_Wouldn't it be nice to just give up now and drift away . . . ._

He shook his head.

_Idiot!_ He mentally kicked himself. _What are you thinking? Giving up so easily? Not a chance in Hell!_

He stopped mentally accosting himself when he realized yet another thing. A small smile crept across his paling lips.

- - -

Taeon was about ready to give up and go find help when she saw a bright blue light swirling above the ocean's surface in the distance.

Her eyes widened in surprise and she jumped up and down, clapping her hands joyously. She stopped abruptly when she found how childish she was acting.

"That light!" She exclaimed softly, blue eyes completely tranfixed on the blue light ahead. "But why is he all the way out there!?" A scowl formed on her face and she growled. "I am _so_ going to kick his ass once he gets back!"

She stopped ranting and watched in awe as the light pulsed with life and grew brighter with every second. Within its center, something long and almost metallic looking began to form in the light. When it took shape, the metallic surface began to crack. Brilliant beams of light momentarily lit up the surface of the ocean.

From where she was standing, Taeon had to shield her eyes from being blinded by the flash. When the light faded away, there large, scaly, blue dragon left in its wake. Its long body shimmering with an odd glow as it slowly settled itself into the water.

"Leviathan . . . ," she whispered, completely entrance by the sight.

Sure, she seen the Guardian Force many times before, but it still had that beauty to it each time it was summoned. And she'll never get tired of seeing it.

She watched it dip its head into the ocean then come back up with someone riding on top. Slowly, it made its way calming to the shore. As it got closer, she found Lane sprawled out on top of the dragon's head, his arms wrapped firmly around something.

"Lane!"

Taeon ran up to the Gaurdian Force, patting its snout lightly as it bent its head, resting it on the white sand of the beach. It seemed to almost purr at her touch and screeched softly in its throat.

"You're doing well, Levi," Taeon said softly with a smile. A deep throated groan turned her attention to the top of the GF's head. Upon doing so, her smile turned into a frown.

"What in Hyne's name were you doing out in the middle of the damned ocean, Lane!?" She snapped.

Leviathan screeched loudly, becoming slightly uneasy at her tone of voice. The girl absently rubbed her hand down its snout in apology.

Lane sat up wearily and flinched inwardily when he met the blazing eyes of his twin. He didn't feel up to answering a million questions at the moment, so he looked down, studying the person lying beside him.

With the warm glow coming from Levithan, he could finally get a good look of who he rescued.

It was woman, though she was fairly young and appeared to be around his age. Her ebony locks of wet hair was plastered to the side of her soft round cheekbones; it was short and chin length. She looked pretty small and skinny, but had a lean build and the soft curves of a woman. He reached forward and gently brushed her hair away from her face. He stilled when her lips parted at his touch and she sighed softly.

_She's beautiful_, he thought.

"Hellooo! Oy!"

Lane pulled his hand back quickly and turned to look down at his twin. She had her hand on her narrow hips and was tapping her foot with impatience.

"Aren't you going to come down now?" She asked, her cheeks puffed slightly. She was a bit annoyed when he didn't answer her and infuriated that he had her running around the beach like a headless chocobo this whole time.

A light flush appeared across his nose and cheekbones, he nodded hastily. After several attempts of trying to will his now sore limbs to move, he gave up and looked down at his sister.

Taeon rolled her eyes skyward. "Yeah, yeah. I'm coming."

She apologized to Leviathan once again when she hoisted herself up and stood on the narrow bridge of its pointy nose. With her eyes only on her brother, she didn't see the girl lying prone next to him. She knelt beside her brother and told him to wrap his arm around her shoulder. He refused to do so with a swift shake of his head.

"Hey, you're the one that wanted me to help you!" She snapped, though her voice had a soft undertone to it this time.

"I do want your help, but we need to get her down first," he said. Lane motioned to his side. He grimaced at the small gesture and quickly brought his arm down.

Taeon did a double take when her eyes landed on the girl lying next to him.

"What the . . . !? Where the hell did she come from!?" She exclaimed loudly, nearly falling off Leviathan's head in surprise.

Lane sighed loudly, making it a point that he wanted to get down, but only if she helped the girl first.

"OK, OK! Sheesh . . . ," Taeon planeted her feet firmly on the GF's head and grunted deep in her throat when she lifted the girl in her arms. It didn't help much that the girl was nearly as big as she was and was currently dead to the world. Having gained enough footing and balance, Taeon jumped as lightly as she could with her burden off Leviathan's head, nearly dropping the unconcious girl in the process. Lane scowled at his sister's clumsiness.

Taeon eased her burden onto the ground then stood up and arched her back. She cringed at the sound of a few loud pops and cracks that came after.

"Hyne, she was heavy!" She craned her neck up to her brother and nearly laughed at the helplessness he displayed atop the GF's head. He looked like a wounded bird, who took a fell out of its nest and into the ocean on its first flight.

He glared down at her. "What are you smirking about?"

Taeon shook her multicolored hair, muffling a small chuckle with the back of her hand.

She coughed and cleared her throat, "Nothing . . . ?"

"Yeah right," he mumbled. Then, "Nevermind, I'll get down myself."

She watched her brother slowly make his way down Leviathan's nose, stopping now and then to clutch at his aching arm. She heard him groan when he looked down. He needed to jump down in order to get off. In doing so would jar his whole body.

The aftereffect wouldn't be nice. Not at all.

Seeing that he would indeed need help, Taeon moved forward and told him to use her as support. He thanked her and sat on the tip of the GF's nose. Firmly gripping her shoulders, he lowered himself as gently as possible.

When he was safely on the ground, Taeon's eyes widened. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Here!" Taeon placed her brother's hands on Leviathan. "Hold on. I'll be right back!"

Lane looked at Leviathan with questioning eyes. He only got a low coo in response. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders, running his hand up and down the Guardian Force's nose.

Taeon returned just a few seconds later, holding a light green vial in her hands. She opened it and handed it to him.

"Drink it. It might help a little with the pain," she said. Then muttered, "Knew I should've stocked more Cure spells."

Lane didn't question her, tipping the small vial to his lips and emptying its contents. He closed his eyes, nearly enjoying the warm tingling feeling it brought after it had settled.

_A Potion?_ He thought.

He handed the vial back to his twin. "Thanks, Tae."

"Your welcome!" She smiled, happy to have done a good deed. "So, ya feel any better?"

Lane did a once over of flexing his once sore muscles and stretching them out a bit. He turned to his sister with a small smile and lightly patted her head.

"Much," he said.

Taeon swatted his hand away. "What am I? Some kind of pet?"

She playfully punched him in the gut, making him grunt in turn.

Lane absently rubbed his abused abdomen, muttering, "Sometimes I think she forgets that she uses her fists for weapons . . . ."

He abandoned his sister's side and walked with heavy feet over to the unconcious girl lying on the beach. Before he knelt down, he turned back to Leviathan and his sister.

"Thank you, Levi," he said, bringing a hand to his forehead. He closed his eyes and concentrated on bringing the large God-like beast back into the farthest reaches of his mind where it resided until called upon again.

"See you again soon, Levi!" Taeon called out as the scaly beasts' form slowly disappeared. As soon as it was gone, the two--or three--were left in almost complete darkness.

Taeon shivered in the dark, rubbing her bare arms. Once her eyes adjusted to the dark, she slowly made her way over to the shadowy form crouching low on the ground. Every step she took toward her brother, her anger at him from before slowly began to resurface.

Whatever she was about to say to him upon approach, however, was cut off by her twins' voice.

"She needs help, Tae. We have to get her back to Garden quickly and into the firmary. Kadowaki will know what to do for her."

Unlike his sister, Lane had no qualms about lifting the girl and even took off in a sprint toward Garden once he had her securely in his arms.

Taeon was left behind, gaping dumbfounded at her retreating brothers back.

"B-but . . . ." She stood there a second longer then growled. She ran after him.

"Fine! But I'm still going to kick your ass later!"

* * *

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Hey there! Sorry for the long wait. Instead of making the chapter longer than intended, I've decided to write up _two_ chapters! Though you'll have to wait a couple more days to read the second. Sorry! dodges flying projectiles Well, anyway, please review. Thanks!

- - N a t s u

Thank you for reviewing: himaco, immortalbreeze04, dark-shade-soul, Vivi, Emrelle Elendal, darkfire19, moggy201484271612345, Sqully, Annjirika and Deplora!

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D i s c l a i m e r s a n d C o p y r i g h t s  
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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


	5. Chapter Five

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter Five  
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L i f e W i t h o u t R e g r e t s  
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_"Hey Squall! Wait up!"_

A twenty-two-year-old Leon stopped and turned around. His stormy, blue eyes darkening with annoyanced as they leveled themselves on a petite, dark-haired girl with a sleeveless, orange, halter top and and white boy shorts.

Having finally caught up with the astranged, young man, Yuffie bent over with her hands on her knees and sucked in as much air into her lungs as she possibly could.

"I've told you repeatedly to call me 'Leon' from now on." Leon gripped the hilt of his gunblade, which hung menacingly upon his hip.

Undaunted, Yuffie glanced up and glared at the man standing above her.

"Could you have walked any faster!? I nearly died _running after you!"_

"If it kept you from my back for one day or the rest of my life, I'd have gladly done so," Leon deadpanned.

The young ninja in training, straightened her back. A near blinding fury raged silently behind the cool gray of her eyes.

"You're not the only one who lost someone, _Squall_. I did, too, if you haven't forgotten. But you don't see me, Cid, or Aerith stalking about the place and hidding in shadows, do you?"

"You wouldn't understand. Besides, you're only thirteen, how could you possibly understand anything," he replied coolly.

Yuffie clenched her eyes shut against oncoming tears and glared up at Leon through her bangs. "It's you who doesn't understand anything. You're too cold."

What came out her mouth next before she ran off down the dark streets of Traverse Town, made him unbelievably angry.

". . . You might as well be one of them 

But beneath all the anger and resentment was a deep and terrible regret. He was a whirling mass of confusion.

She's right . . . . __

"I can't understand anything."

He stood there for a while before continuing on his way to his favorite training spot. The Secret Waterway. As he got to the entrance, a terrible, heart stopping scream echoed off the walls of the dark alley way.

- - -

Squall splashed his face with cool tap water from his privite suit at Esthar Palace, then dried it with a towel. He grimaced and buried his face within the soft folds of the fluffy linen, trying futilely to will the beginnings of a migrane away. That only seemed to make the dull throbbing worst.

"Shit!"

He tossed the towel down and went back into the living quarters of his spacious suit. He was just sitting down on one of the leather bound sofas, when a light rapping sounded at his door.

He winced at the sudden noise then grumbled the whole way to the door to answer it. His ramblings seemed to consisted of the words: ". . . gunblade . . . lopping off heads . . . piking sticks . . . ."

His grumbling stopped once the door swooshed open. He would later regret that he ever did.

"Squuaaaaaaal!!"

All he saw were the colors green, yellow, white and brown, before being tackled by an unknown source.

"Squall! SQUALL!! It's so good to see you again! Things at Garden just aren't the same without you stalking the corridors or barking out orders!"

Dazed, Squall could only grasp a handful of what this new being said. It was talking so fast, he supposed anyone would have a hard time deciphering it's words. Whoever 'IT' was. By the softness of 'it's' body and weight, he could safely assumed 'it' to be a girl child.

"Uh, Sefie, I think you should let Squall go now. He's turning a bit blue in the face. Urk--It's not a very pretty color . . . ."

"Aww . . . . Okay!"

The thing bounced off of him, allowing Squall to sit up and take a glimpse of whatever attacked him. He sucked in his breath when his eyes met a pair of big, round, sparkly green ones in return.

"Look at the poor guy. Pale as a ghost." Squall felt something tug on his arm. "Well, come on man. Up!"

Still a bit confused and his head throbbing painfully with all the sudden commotion, Squall allowed the two new comers help him up. Looking at them, he recognized Irvine, black stetson hat all, and the other one. The bouncing little yellow thing with big green eyes.

He spared them both an uneasy smile.

"Hey, Irvine. And Selphie. When did you get in?"

Irvine grinned wrapped a sleeveless arm around Selphies shoulders. Selphie, in turn, giggled in delight and snuggled closer to her friend, who also happened to be her boyfriend. Squall almost pushed them out the door and put the lock code on it so that he wouldn't have to gouge his eyes out for witnessing such blindly love and sweetness. Sure he and Rinoa loved one another and even cuddled on occasion, but never to this extent. Besides, it was always Rinoa who initiated the cuddling.

Irvine glanced at his commander from the corner of his eye. He found Squall starring at them with a rather bored and irritated expression.

"Uh, sorry man. Yeah, me and Selphie got in just a little after eight-hundred hours. Laguna gave us a brief tour and kinda filled us in on what's been going on around here. Then he had to run off to fulfill is presidential duties."

Selphie giggled and bounced up and down in place. "Sir Laguna is such a gentleman. And incredibly cool!"

Being the jealous boyfriend, Irvine had to protest. "Hey, hey now. I can be a gentleman too you know. And I'm ten times more cooler then that old guy!"

Selphie choose to ignore him and jumped up to give Squall another hug.

"Oh, it's just so great seeing you again! So, how're you holding up?" She asked, returning to a pouting Irvine's side.

Squall put his head in his hands and groaned loudly.

Selphie gave him a sympathetic look, her emerald eyes showing deep concern for her friend.

Irvine bent down a bit so he could whisper something in Selphie's ear while looking equally concerned at their fierce commander.

"You think we came at a bad time? He looks pretty out of it."

Selphie nodded in agreement, her expression a bit sad.

"You know we can always come back later, Squall."

Squall peeked at them through the cracks of his fingers before letting his hand fall away completely.

"No. It's alright. I'm really glad you guys came." Squall grimaced and turned away. "These migraines, though. . . . They hurt like hell."

Selphie went to him and gently wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"I'm so sorry, Squall. If there's anything we can do to help, just tell us and we'll do it." She pressed a kiss to his temple in a motherly fashion before pulling back.

Irvine wrapped his arms around Selphie again, pulling her into his embrace.

"Yeah, man. Need some tranquilizers or something? I brought a few for myself. Selphie kept beating me on the way over." Irvine winked at him, but got an elbow in the ribs from Selphie herself. He smiled uneasily at her.

Selphie glared menacingly up at him. She did a one-eighty transformation , however, when she turned back to Squall with a smile as bright as the sun. He only blinked lazily at the both of them.

"No thanks. I don't really care much for the stuff. The after effect isn't all that pleasant anyway." Squall rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. "However, if you don't mind, could you guys come back later? I want to lie down for a while."

"Sure we can! Come on Irvine! Let's leave him alone!" Selphie realized she was practically screaming and quickly covered her mouth. "Oops . . . ," she whispered.

Squall uncovered his ears, looking as if he were going to strangle her any moment now. His hands clenched and unclenched at his side.

"I'm so, so sorry!" Selphie whispered and then gasped. She soon found herself being tossed over Irvines shoulder and then being fondly patted on the butt. "Hey!"

"Sorry about all the noise we caused. We'll leave you be now, so see ya later!" Irvine waved and walked out the door. Selphie glared at Irvine's backside, but managed to wave good bye to Squall before his room door slid shut.

Squall sighed and quietly reveiled in the peace and quiet of his suite once they left. It wasn't long after they left that he received another visitor.

"Squall?"

Rinoa, having the access card to his suite, entered his spacious living room.

He smiled, but didn't say anything. Sensing that something was wrong, Rinoa walked up to him, tilting her head in just a way that reminded Squall of a new born chocobo. His smile broadened a bit.

"Wow, you look tired. Are you alright?" She asked, reaching up to his long bangs away from his forehead.

"Migraine," was all he said before sitting himself as gently as possible on the plush, green sofa, so as not to jar his head in the process. Rinoa sat at the space beside him and wrapped her arms about his middle. The two were content to just sit like that for the rest of the day.

Rinoa, speaking in a low tone, broke the silence.

"Squall?"

"Hn?"

"These migraines . . . they don't happen to have anything to do with the dreams you've been having lately, do they?"

Squall sighed, a frown marring the space between his dark brows.

"Could be . . . ."

"I wish I could take it away . . . ." Rinoa trailed off as she slowly drifted off to sleep. "No more . . . pain . . . . Just take it all . . . away."

Squall glanced down at Rinoa's dark head, reaching to brush his fingertips across the softness of her cheek. She smiled sleepily and tightened her arms around him.

"Me too, Rin. Me too . . . ."

* * *

"Is . . . is she . . . ?"

Kadowaki smirked up at the near identical duo standing on the otherside of her desk.

"She's fine you two. Though, she hasn't shown any signs of waking just yet. It's good that the two of you check up on her often, but don't you think you should be in class now?"

Taeon grinned from ear to ear. "Hehe, everything's cool! Zell wouldn't miss us for even a moment! Since he returned from Esthar, he's been a little out of it. Him and the commander are pretty good friends from what I can tell, so it's safe to assume that he's worried 'bout him or something."

Kadowaki returned the smile while shaking her head, "You're assumption is correct, Michaels. Both the commander, Zell, and three other Balamb instructors, are very good friends. From what they told me, they have been friends since early childhood. I still think that it's pretty amazing that the five of them reunited here at Balamb after all these years . . . ." She trailed off, getting wrapped in a not too distant memory of past events. Realizing this, she glanced at the two across from her. "Sorry about that. Anyway, there really isn't anything new here. Things are still pretty much the same since you visited yesterday. Tell me, why are the two of you so worried about the girl?"

Lane has been asking himself that same exact question since he saved the girl a week ago and has yet to come up with a reasonable answer. So he said nothing and let his twin do all the talking, as she was wont to do.

"Well, you see . . . ."

They all waited.

". . . I . . . I really don't know!" Taeon answered with a shrug of her shoulders. Lane shot her an exasperated look. "What? It's the truth, ain't it?"

Kadowaki chuckled and shuffled through some paper work, before standing up and bracing her hands on the edge of her desk.

"I guess there isn't anything to say about the girl. The poor dear. We've checked all id systems in the world and no one has yet to report a missing girl. Nor does her DNA pattern match that of any known person. She's a mystery, this one. It's like she just popped up out of no where. Or another world, but that's ludicrous. There's no way that could happen."

"What if . . . ."

Taeon turned to her brother. "You say something?"

Lane glared at his sister before speaking more audibly. "But don't you think it _could_ be possible?" He asked. All he received were blank stares. "I mean, think about it. We've come a long way in highly advanced technology. For starters, the Time Compression. If we can do that, then surely we can make a teleportation device that can transfer one person from one world to another. There has to be another world, or _worlds_, out there."

Taeon blinked, then blinked again before dissolving into insane laughter.

"Ha . . . haha, you've gone completely off your rocker, Lane. Where'd you come up with such a stupid idea?" Taeon doubled over in her chair. For a moment, Lane was afraid she'd tip over and fall flat on her face. But he figured she'd deserve it anyway. "Th-That's something I never expect to come out of _your_ mouth!"

Lane took offense. "I-It's not stupid, stupid! You may not believe it, but _I_ do! Don't you think that there are other worlds out there. People. People with lives similar to our own?"

Taeon only seemed to laugh more louder and obnoxiously than before.

"I believe you."

Lane's eyes widened and he turned back to Kadowaki. "You . . . you do?"

The corners of Kadowaki's eyes crinkled as she smiled kindly down at the young man.

"Sure. You're right. Who says there aren't other worlds out there? And your also right about our technology these days. With Esthar's technicians, and scholars, there's really no telling what they'll conjure up next. The Time Compression was a frightening thing, but not all the stuff they made are terrible. Besides we have Odine to thank for that last ordeal." Kadowaki inwardily shuddered.

The two took on a sad expression after that. They had lost many friends during the Time Compression and lots more were hurt in the war against Galbadia. Taeon reached for Lane's hand and squeezed it reassuringly, seeing him go pale and his eyes clear of emotion. His fingers barely curled around her hand, but it was enough to relieve Taeon of her worries about him. He was going to be alright.

"Oh!"

They both looked up at the doctor, a bit startled by her exclamation.

"I'm so sorry, Lane. I didn't mean to . . . . I completely forgot about . . . so sorry!"

Lane released his sister's hand and stood up. He gave the doctor a smile. A very weak smile, but a smile no less. "It's alright," he said, before walking out the door. The two still left behind stared at the empty space that was left by him.

"He hasn't relapsed, has he? I hope I didn't . . . . Damn! He still hasn't gotten over it, has he?"

Taeon looked down at her fidgeting hands. "No one can truly forget things so easily . . . . He may have suppressed most of what happened, but I think that the most terrible part of what happened a year ago is forever stuck in his memory. He tries his best to conceal it and hasn't said a word about it, but I know he thinks about it constantly." She looked up and meet the older woman's eyes. "And I think that's why he might have saved the girl . . . because of what took place a year ago. Too me, it's like he's thinking of _her_ whenever he sees the girl. He doesn't want to lose her too."

Kadowaki contemplated this, returning to her desk and sitting back down. She studied the sullen expression on the other girl's face, her bright blue eyes having darkened with the turn of the conversation.

"So you're saying that, if this girl doesn't recover, it's possible that he might completely shut down this time? What about you, Tae? Do you see someone else, when you look at the girl?"

Taeon glanced uneasily at the doctor and shifted in her sit uncomfortably. "Not in the same way that I think Lane does. But yeah, I guess so . . . . Dee and I weren't really _that_ close, but I felt something when his name turned up in The List. It was something terrible, but I didn't close myself off the way he did."

Kadowaki sighed then smiled sadly. "He was a good kid, that guy. Great pilot and fighter. It was a lost for us all. We lost so many great friends as well as great students. And she . . . She was something else. It's no wonder Lane did what he did."

They sat in silence for what seemed like hours, but eventually Taeon stood and bid the kind doctor farewell with the promise to be back the next day.

- - -

_A girl with long, dark hair and crimson eyes bounced into Lane's view. Her warm, sultry smile made him smile in return and his heart rate picked up considerably._

"Hey, Lane! Me and Dee are going to check out the basketball game. Trabia's playing Galbadia today. You coming?"

He shook his head. "No, me and Tae have to train outside on the plains for our transfer back into Balamb. If the game's still going on, we'll catch up with you. All right?"

She grinned and jumped into his arms. "Okay!"

Something incredibly warm and soft grazed Lane's jawline, leaving a nice tingling sensation after.

"Be careful. Okay?" She whispered into his ear.

"Saori . . . ."

"I'll see you later!"

She pulled back and was gone.

"Lane! Where are--Oh! There you are! Whoa, why're you so red?" Taeon jogged up to him and closely inspected her brother's cherry red face.

"Ugh. Get away from me!" Lane pushed her face away from him and stalked off.

Taeon grinned from ear to ear in that demon-like smile of her's. Catching up to her brother, she just had to ask.

"So did Saori give you a love bite to remember her by?"

Taeon sidestepped a high aimed punch, that would've knocked her head off if she hadn't dodged in time, and laughed. She ran away with Lane in full pursuit.

"Red looks good on you! You should wear it more often! Haha!" She yelled over her shoulder.

"I'm going to kill you!"

- - -

30 minutes later . . . 

_"Oh my god! Look! Up there in the sky!"_

Saori and her friend Dion, whom everyone called 'Dee', looked at the guy sitting next to them on the blenchers. Then followed his finger up to the sky.

"What are _ those!?"_

"They're . . . . They're Galbadian Missiles!! And they're coming right at us!"

Saori froze and became frightened and clung to Dion's side.

"No . . . . Please, just no!" She whispered.

"Shh. Be strong. Everything will be okay. Just try not to panic!" Dion wrapped his arms around her in comfort.

Soon people began to run in all directions, trying in vain to run and hide for cover. Saori and Dion, however did no such thing. They stayed where they were. They both knew in their hearts that hiding from those monster missiles was effortless. There was just no avoiding them.

"No . . . . Lane! I want Lane! I wanna be with him! Please, Dee! Just take me to him! Please . . . ." Saori sobbed and buried her face into her friend's chest.

Dion was now shedding tears too. There was also only one person he wanted to be with. But it was already too late now to do anything about it. He just wished . . . he had told her sooner . . . ."

- - -

1 hour later . . . 

_"No! Noooooooo!!"_

"Lane! Stop it! There's nothing we can do now! It's all over and done with. They're gone. Both of them! They're . . . ."

Taeon broked down into tears and cried for her two lost friends.

"This is just . . . so unfair_!" She ground out between clenched teeth, while at the same time slamming her gloved fist into the rock hard ground._

"Hey, you two! We found some survivors! They're students from Galbadia. One's i--Hey! Wait! Where are you going!?"

Taeon raced to the ruins of what was once Trabia's basketball court. There she found five slightly injured students standing guard. They blocked her way as she tried getting through. Taeon flew into a rage and took them out with her fist.

"Someone has to stop her!"

"Where is he!? Tell me damn it! Where are the survivors!?"

A timid, young boy with glasses pointed in the direction of a large boulder.

"Please wait! Come back, please!"

"You fucking bastards! I'm going to kill for what you did to my friends! I'm going t--Let me go! I'll kill anyone that comes near me!"

The Galbadians all had tears running down their dirty and blood soaked faces.

"Michaels! You have to calm down, please!"

Taeon struggled and kicked against her captors, her elbow smashing into one holders face, causing his nose and mouth to bleed badly.

"They killed him! They killed Dee!! I have to--!"

"We're sorry, Michaels, but you can't be doing this right now. Hold her down and sedate her."

Someone came running up to them just as they sedated Taeon. She slumped in their arms, angry tears streaking down her pale face.

"Hey, have you seen one of the Michaels twins? She ra--My God! What did you do to her!?"

"Yeah, sorry, but we had to put a tranquilizer in her to sedate her. She was going stalk, raving mad here. Tried killing the Galbadians over there."

"What!?"

"Well, what did you want with her anyway?"

"Oh yeah. You have to come quick! The other one--her brother--is convulsing and we don't know what to do with him!"

"Shit! Everyone, let's go! And bring his sister."

"Why's this all happening? Why!?"

No one could possibly answer that. Especially when they all thought the same.

- - -

She found Lane sitting on the stool in the girl's room, looking out the open window. His eyebrows were drawn together so deeply that Taeon was afraid he was angry or something. Lane rarely had much of a temper, but when he it got ticked, it was pretty scary sight. She treaded the ground cautiously.

"You're heavy breathing gives you away. Besides, I can see your reflection in the mirror."

Taeon missed her step and barely caught herself from topling over. "O-oh yeah? Hehe . . . h-he."

Lane grinned at her over his shoulder before gazing out the window again. Taeon release a sigh of relief, glad that he returned to some state of normalcy.

"Haa . . . ."

Lane jumped out of his sit and Taeon nearly ran out the door.

"S-sh-sh-sh-she's ALIVE!?" Taeon squeaked, holding her head in a very distressful manner.

Lane rolled his eyes, "You idiot." He returned to his sit and studied the girl on the bed closely. Nothing happened for the longest time, so they both got ready to leave when the girl groaned and clenched her eyes shut. The twins locked eyes on one another, blue on blue, then returned uneasy gazes to the writhing girl on the cot.

"I-I think we should be doing something, but I'm at a lost of what to do," Lane whispered, afraid that if he talked loudly, he might in some way send the girl back into her comatose state once again. Taeon just stood in a state of shock, mouth and eyes gaping wide open. "T-Tae?"

He went to shake her out of it, but once he reached her . . . .

"WOW! This is _so_ awesome!! I'll tell Kadowaki the good news!" Then she was gone.

Lane rolled his eyes heaven ward, asking Hyne for the seeming hundreth time why he blessed him with such an idiot for an older sister. He sighed loudly and returned to the matter at hand. Well, he really couldn't do anything except watch helplessly as the girl tossed and turned and wait unti his idiot sister returned with the doctor. So he leaned against the wall, crossed his arms and waited. A second later, the doctor streamed into the room and took immediate action, performing all her medical duties and other stuff doctors were trained to know.

Taeon stood by bouncing excitedly from foot to foot and grinning like a mad woman. Lane steadied her by putting his hand on her shoulders. She ceased bouncing and flashed him a grin.

"You're angel is finally waking, Lane," she whispered.

Lane looked askance. Now where did _that_ come from? He shook his head. His sister was one of nine wonders. In all his life, even he didn't truly understood the workings of her brain, close as they were.

"Lane! Could you help me here? You too Taeon. She may not look it, but this gal is real strong!" Kadowaki struggled to hold her still as she tried futilely to inject a sedative into the girl. Taeon grabbed the girl's feet and Lane put his hands on her shoulders. He felt bad doing this, but if it helped her, he was willing to do just about anything. Hell. He even jumped into the _ocean_ after her and nearly killed the both of them in the process!

_Whoa . . . ._ Lanes eyes widened once he put his hands on the girl's shoulders. She _was_ strong. Underneath that soft skin of hers were nicely toned muscles, and strength, that just weren't seemingly visible to the naked eye. He concluded that she must work out daily to achieve something like that.

"NO! Let me go! You'll never have my heart!"

"Yowch!"

Kadowaki and Lane glanced at each other then at the empty space where his sister was. From his point of view, Lane could see his sister sprawled on the floor with a large bolching red spot on her face. It appeared to be turning bluer with each passing second.

"Haha, well, this girl's gone and done it. Knocked your sister out clean out!"

Lane wide blue eyes blinked profusely. He realized the girl wasn't struggling anymore and looked down at her face. He didn't expect the girl to be looking right up at him with her wide, gray eyes. It shocked him. The both of them . . . .

"Aaah!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"

Lane backed away and stumbled over his sister as he did, which resulted with him on his backside with a stunned expression. Next to him, Taeon groaned and tried sitting up. But because Lane was on top of her, she couldn't move the lower half of her body.

"What the . . . ? What the hell happened? Lane? Kadowaki?" Taeon again tried sitting up. "And who in _hell_ is sitting on _me_!? SONOVABI--!"

"T-That's quite enough, Taeon. You were knocked out, the girl woke up, Lane was shocked and tripped over you."

Taeon let that process her brain, then became suddenly angry. "WHAT!?"

"Shut up, Tae! I'm getting of--"

"Whaz ith all teh _noise_!? Meh ead urts . . . ."

All three froze in place. Lane and Taeon both pulled their selves off the floor and bent over the girl, who looked none to happy.

"W . . . who _are_ you?" The girl sat up and immediately clutched her head in her hands. Not long after that, she blacked out and slumped back on her pillow. The three looked at one another with raised eyebrows.

* * *

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A u t h o r ' s N o t e s  
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Hi everyone! I'm so, so, _so_ incredibly sorry for the lack of updates these past few months. I moved and then my computer broke down. There was absolutely no way to update or type for that matter after that happened. I'll have some updates for you this coming month, so hang tight and bear with me here! Oh yeah and just to reassure some people, this is definately a Squffie! Or will be, eventually. Anyway, thanks for reading! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

- - N a t s u

And since I just typed this all up really fast, I'll go back and edit the story a bit. The beginning of this chapter seemed a bit too fast for my likely.

Thank you for reviewing: October Breeze, Emrelle Moon Elendal, Deplora, fantacdreamer, Sqully and moggy201484271612345!

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D i s c l a i m e r s a n d C o p y r i g h t s  
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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


	6. Chapter Six

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter Six  
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R e a s o n F o r B e i n g H e r e  
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"Oh no! P-p-please! S-stop it!"

"No you don't! You're not getting away from me this time!"

Squall and Rinoa watched the couple across from them lose their selves in what appeared to be a tickle war. Irvine laughed uproariously and nearly fell off the chair he was sitting on. Selphie grinned from ear to ear and continued to tickle her helpless boyfriend mercilessly.

The four of them all decided to meet for lunch the day before at a seemingly, popular outdoors cafe just outside Esthar Palace's perimeters. Curtesy of Esthar's President and Squall's father Laguna, they were able to enjoy free meals and each other's company at no cost. Almost completely against their will, Squall and Irvine were lead all over Esthar by their girlfriends. In just a short a time, they became quite familiar with Esthar City and it's locals, going from clothing store to clothing store, shoe store to shoe store, mall to mall, etc., etc.,. The boys didn't seem to catch a break, much less a breath, until they happened by a weopons shop. Instantanuosly, the boys sought their safe haven within the doors of the small store.

To say the least, Selphie was _not_ Miss Bubbling Sunshine when Irvine came back to her. Tickling him seemed sufficient punishment enough for abandoning Selphie once he returned to her side. Rinoa laughed and enjoyed watching their childish antics, while Squall could only stare vacantly at the two. He hoped that the couple would stop soon, for they were drawing unwanted attention at their selves.

"I've suddenly lost my appetite," Squall mumbled quietly.

Rinoa turned to him and tilted her head. "But I thought you liked Balamb Fish? It may be imported, but it still tastes like home." Rinoa stabbed at a piece of Squall's fish and shrimp bites and popped it into her mouth. "It's great! You can't tell the difference."

"It's not the fish." He directed a scowl at the couple across from him.

She followed his gaze and laughed. "I think it's sweet. Besides they did come here to enjoy their selves afterall. Being promoted to Instructor can't be at all that fun."

At this Selphie stopped her assault on Irvine, who was now gasping for much needed air, and took offense. "Instructing is _too_ fun! We get to play games, watch really cool movies . . . ." Selphie drew in a quick breath at the glare she received from Squall and quickly covered herself up with: "Of course, it's all for educational purposes! We also draw blueprints of future, possible airships!" And finished with: "The kids and I have oodles and oodles of fun! Teaching is _great_!"

Rinoa laughed at Selphie's ever optimistic attitude, then continued to finish her lunch.

"Selphie's right. Instructing can be pretty exciting once you get into it, you know? Besides, there's a _lot_ of cuties signing in to my classes. I can't seem to get enough of them. Ow!"

Irvine poked Selphie in the side, while at the same time, he rubbed his bruising bicep with his free hand. She squeaked and glared at her boyfriend.

"Why're you giving me that look for? I didn't do anything wrong! Where's the trust?"

Selphie mulled this over and looked decidely uncomfortable as she shifted in her sit. She suddenly put her head in her hands and began to bawl.

"You're right! I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, so, _so_ sorry!! I'm such a--a terrible girlfriend!" Throwing her arms around a completely stunned Irvine, Selphie sniffled and hiccuped. "Will you ever _forgive_ me!?"

At a complete loss for words, Irvine nodded his head almost frantically. Then when she showed no signs of stopping, he wrapped his arms around her and whispered soothing words into her ear.

"Shh . . . . There, there . . . ."

Finally, she looked up, grabbed the sides of his face, and kissed his lips passionately.

Squall and Rinoa blinked, completely thrown off from Selphie's sudden outburst.

"Well. Hmm. Squall?" Rinoa cast an uneasy glance in her boyfriend's direction. To find he was no longer there. She batted her brown eyes in confusion.

"Way ahead of you."

Rinoa turned to the sound of his voice and smiled. Squall had already risen from his seat and was now holding out a hand for her. She gladly accepted it and rose out of her chair.

"Think they'll be okay?" She asked once they left their friends behind.

Squall grunted in reply and continued in the direction of their final destination--Esthar Palace. Thankfully there were teleportation carriers everywhere in Esthar that took their shopping bags back to their respectful rooms, that way no one would have to carry anything heavy heading back. How convenient their technology was these days.

The two were quiet on their way back to the Palace. Happy to be finally heading back to rest for the remainder of the afternoon. Out of all the days they had been here in Esthar, this day had to be the most eventful of all.

Rinoa sighed contently and then paused as she remembered something important.

Squall stopped at the sudden resistence on his right arm. "Rin?'

Rinoa's eyes widened. "Squall! We forgot about your appointment! I can't believe we forgot!"

Squall cast his eyes to the ground. His appointment? Oh right. His daily check up with Odine. But . . . .

"I'm not going," was Squall's reply.

Rinoa looked almost pleadingly at him. "But you must! You have to!"

Squall growled and stared right into her eyes. "Why!? Why do I have to go? All I do is sit there while that mad man back there sticks electrodes all over my body for his own personal enjoyment!"

"But, Squall, you're memories . . . ."

"It's stupid! This whole thing is just so stupid!" He freed himself from her hold on him and began walking away. Rinoa's next words stopped him from going futher.

"S-stupid? Is what we have _stupid_ then? Because if it is, then . . . then . . . . Damn it, Squall! I'm just so damn _worried_ about you is all. Not once have you told me anything about what happened to you. I don't know what it is, but you just seem different somehow. _Somehow_, all this seemed to change you over night! No one changes that fast in just short a time."

Squall said nothing and continued to stare off into space.

Rinoa now stood in front of him, trying to read his eyes. "Won't you at least tell me?"

Squall laughed coldly. Rinoa frowned. "Tell you? How can I tell you anything when I don't even understand myself." She backed away, tears forming in her eyes. "I told you and everyone else that I remembered _everything_. But now that I do, there's just all this confusion with what's going on around me that it's so damn frustrating! Then there's my father, Ellone, and everyone breathing down my back, it's hardly bearable!"

Rinoa looked at the ground, then Esthar's scenery. It held so much beauty to her before. Now it just appeared to be nothing more than floating projectiles and blocks, big and small. Where'd all that beauty go? Was she just seeing things? She returned her gaze to Squall's angry and tormented face.

He now gazed meaningfully into her eyes.

"I just want this all to end and go home." He drew her into his embrace and caressed her hair. "All I want to do is go home . . . ."

Rinoa sniffed and pulled back in his arms just to where she could look into his eyes. Resting her forehead against his own, she smiled with only a hint of sadness in it.

"Yeah . . . . Let's go home."

* * *

"Wow . . . ."

"I know."

"Just . . . wow . . . ."

Lane sighed and tugged on his sister's arm. "Yes, I know. So let's just go already."

"Okay . . . . Wow."

Growing impatient, Lane grabbed his dazed sister by the collar of her uniform and dragged her towards the cafeteria. Once there, the corner's of Lane's lips turned down at the corners at sight of the long line ahead of them.

"See what you did? Now we have to wait."

"Oh man! I was so awesome today! Did you see me!? I kicked major aff umph omph mmmm!?"

Wandering students stared at the twins oddly as they stood in line. Lane chose to ignore everyone and kept his hand firmly over his sister's mouth. Only until she quieted down did he only chose to release her. That, however, was his mistake.

"That T-Rexor had nothing on me! Damn!" She lift her arm and flexed her muscles. "I never new I had such strength!"

Embarrassed, Lane covered her mouth once again and inwardly sighed. Someone in back of him accidently bounced into him, making him lose his footing and his hold on his sister at the same time.

"Damn! Late again! I'm sorry man. Didn't mean that!"

Having quickly regained both his footing and his hold, Lane glanced over his shoulder to the source of the voice. He spared small smile.

"It's alright, Instructor. No harm done."

Zell looked up and beamed. "Hey Lane! How's it going?"

"All right, I suppose," he replied, chosing to let go of his sister.

Zell looked around Lane to see his twin gasping for air. "Oh! And Taeon too. Hey Tae!"

Taeon glanced back and practically lit the room with her smile. "Instructor Zell!" She lept into his arms and pulled him into her own little dance.

Zell flushed. "Err . . . . Nice to see you too? Heh."

Realizing what she did, Taeon pulled back immediately and looked around to make sure no body else witnessed that. Seeing it was safe, Taeon smiled once again. "Sorry, Instructor! I'm just really hyped up right now!" She hopped from foot to foot.

Zell chuckled. "Yeah? I can see that. So what's up?"

Taeon must've not heard him because she began to dance merrily around her brother. Lane rolled his eyes and began to explain to the now dumbfound instructor.

"Taeon Limit Breaked today while we were training. She is now one of two--the other being you--to achieve Burning Rave. Which, as you can see, has gotten her pretty . . . well . . . pretty excited."

Zell's eyes widened in surprised, then grabbed Taeon in a bone crushing hug. "Man, that's awesome! To think one of my students learned that combo on their own. I'm real proud of you."

Having gotten the appreciation of her instructor, Taeon became even more excited and jumped up in down. "Whoo-hoo!"

"Wow. That's quite an accomplishment. Most of my students are still learning the Mach Kick technique, but not one of the four ultimate combos! That's amazing! Hey, you have her Battle Meter? I gotta check this out!"

Lane grabbed Taeon's right arm and hissed at her to keep still for a moment--which she didn't--and unstrapped her Battle Meter from her bobbing wrist. He released her and shot her an exasperated look before handing Zell her Battle Meter.

Zell turned it on and then blinked his eyes in astonishment. "This is crazy cool! Hey, Taeon!"

Taeon kept on bouncing and dancing herself home to insanity.

"Tae? Taeon!"

Keep on dancing. Not listening. And now _singing_?

"TAEON!!"

Taeon stopped and turned to her brother. "What do you _want_!? Geez, you didn't have to yell. I mean, come on, people are staring at us."

Lane narrowed his eyes. Zell looked at the two of them and then burst out laughing.

"Damn it, Tae! I kept on calling you, but you didn't hear me. If you could just keep quiet for _one_ damn _minute_, I think you should hear what Zell has to say!"

Taeon blinked at her brother. "Whoa." Kept on blinking.

Zell, glanced uneasily between the two and then settled his gaze on Taeon. "Hey."

Taeon slowly turned her head, though her gaze seemed unwilling to moved with her head. Finally, her blue gaze settled on her instructor. "Uh, yeah?"

Zell grinned. "Just wanted to ask if maybe you could do a demonstration during class today. You know, show those slackers how it's done."

Both Lane and Taeon stared at him. "Are you serious?"

Zell nodded.

Taeon looked at the ground and didn't move. Zell began to think that maybe he said something wrong, until . . . .

"Are you _kidding_ me!? I'd LOVE to!!"

Taeon grabbed the nearest person--her brother--and began to dance all over again.

"Wow, so many things have been happening lately! First the girl wakes up--we still don't know her name, because, well, she hasn't told us yet--, I Limit Break, and now I get to demonstrate the Burning Rave technique in class!" She ended that with another: "Wow!"

Lane finally gave in and cracked a smile. He was proud of her. Really, he was. But did she have to do _that_? Bounce all over the damn place?

Zell smiled. "Great! I'm looking forward to it." He looked over Lane's shoulder and spotted one of his friends. "Quistis! Over here!"

Lane and Taeon turned in time to see a blond beauty begin walking toward their spot in line. On her arms, she balanced two trays. One carried a simple plate of salad and juice, while the other contained . . . .

Zell's mouth hung open.

"Hello Zell. Ahem," Quistis reached up to push Zell's open mouth closed.

"I-is that . . . . Are those . . . ?"

The twins exchanged looks of complete confusion.

Quistis smiled and winked.

"No way!! You're, like, my best friend _ever_! They're for me of course." Zell glanced longingly at the other tray. "Please say they're for me . . . ."

Quistis laughed and handed the other tray, which happened to be piled with Zell's ultimate, most favorite food, to him.

"Hotdogs! Booya!" The blond, martial artists, lept into the air with a tight fist and took the tray of food almost greedily.

Quistis turned to leave, all the while laughing merrily at Zell's excitement over hotdogs.

"Yeah, I'd figured you'd be late getting here, so I grabbed that for you. Those were the very last ones, too. My treat, by the way, so you don't have to pay me back. Just enjoy!" She waved good-bye and was on her way.

Zell sniffled and rubbed his eyes. "Man, I have so many great friends!"

Taeon smiled and decided to poke some fun.

"Aww . . . . Is Mister Zelly-Welly . . . _crying_?"

Zell immediately straightened. "Who's crying?" He asked sternly.

Taeon laughed. "No one!"

Zell grinned and reached up to ruffle her short, multi-colored locks. "Hah! Thought so. Well, I'm going to take off. Man, these sure do smell delicious! Later!" That said, he marched off happily with his newly acquired hotdogs.

"Heh heh. He hasn't changed."

Both Lane and Taeon looked next to them to find another blond standing beside them. Only he was taller, more broad in the shoulders, his hair shorter, green eyes, and a very distinctive scar running across the bridge of his nose. Taeon thought that if it weren't for the bone chilling look to his eyes, she'd find him a rather handsome looking young man. Both were startled to find him there. Was he standing there the whole time? Lane frowned. Taeon gaped.

This new aquintance of theirs smirked and gently pushed Taeon's gaping mouth closed--much like what Quistis did for Zell.

"Nice to meet you, too."

Mentally shaking herself out of her stupor, Taeon asked: "Who are you?"

Retrieving his hand, the man smirked once again. "Almasy."

Lane's eyes narrowed after hearing that name. Why'd it sound so familiar?

"Oh yeah? Name's Michaels! Nice to meet you!" Taeon enthusiastically stretched out her hand. The man took what was offered and they shook hands firmly.

"You got a nice grip there, Michaels."

Taeon's gazed up at him with half-lidded eyes. "Yeah . . . ?" She didn't know what it was, but something about this man enthralled her senses.

Lane raised an eyebrow at the two. _What the . . . ?_

"NOT WORKING."

Startled, Lane turned at the sound of this new voice. His eyes meet one of crimson. Crimson eyes . . . . He shook his head. _No. You're not doing_ that _again._ Looking back at this new comer, he took in the rest of the woman's--whom was standing somewhat stiffly before him--appearance. The woman was apparently albino, with short, silver hair, pale, narrow face and an eyepatch. Even though it was rude of him, Lane's gaze kept drifting over to the black eyepatch. _Did she really lose an eye?_

The tall, blond man, dragged his eyes away from Taeon and studied the new comer. He nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Fuujin."

"Why'd you have to walk fast, ya know?"

The silver-haired woman glared at this _other_ new comer and walked, or rather 'marched,' the rest of the way to a big, muscle-bound man with dark skin and short, wavy, black hair. The man looked frightened at her coming his way and looked all around for a way to escape. He gave up looking and just waited for the old, traditional . . . .

"RAGE!"

"OUCH!!"

. . . Kick to the shins.

Taeon looked from the dark man clutching his bruised shin and back up to the blond man. He was now laughing at the dark man's exspense. Then he looked back down at her, with that hint of laughter still in his green eyes.

"Sorry." He straighened and gestured to the two new comers. "Those two are my friends Fuujin and Raijin. Brother and Sister. The three of us here make up the Disciplinary Commitee."

The twins did a double take at that last bit of info. Taeon didn't get far and, after realizing the cause of that, pulled back her hand from the other man's grip. He let her go without any hesitation.

"Y-You're the . . . the Disciplinary Commitee!?" Taeon squeaked.

The man smirked once again and did a mock bow. "At your service."

Lane was in awe. Taeon was shocked.

"DUTY."

Seifer glance back to his female companion and frowned. "Right. My duty." He looked back at the twins. "Are you the one that's been causing all the noise? We've been getting various reports of such a disturbance in this area."

Taeon slowly blinked her eyes.

"Right. Well, here's this . . . ." He quickly jogged something down on a sticky note and then tried handing it to Taeon. Seeing that she was still in her shocked state of mind, the blond man posted the sticky note on her forehead. Then with a quick farewell, he was gone.

Lane tapped his twin's shoulder. "Tae? Are you alright?"

All he received was silence.

He tried again. "Uh, Taeon? You there?" He lightly rapped his knuckles against her skull.

The sticky note fell off her forehead, which she surprising caught without even looking and read it. Her shoulders visibly stiffened.

Lane cocked his head to the side. "What's it say?"

"D--," Taeon began. "D-d-d-d-d--"

Lane frowned and retrieved the note from his sister's numb fingertips. His eyes narrowed.

"Detention?" Lane looked at his sister's back and noticed that it was shaking rather badly. "Hey, it's just detention. You've had detention before, so you know how it goes." He shrugged it off, as if it were no problem. And it wasn't. For him anyway, as he wasn't the one who just received detention.

Her shaking stopped suddenly and she screamed. "That bastard!"

Lane couldn't believe she was this upset over something as little as a detention slip, but shrugged her off anyway. He looked forward and realized there was a very large gap between him and the line.

"Hey Tae! The line moved up. Let's hurry, get our lunch and go to the infirmary. Tae?"

Lane looked back, but found his sister no where in sight. "Where did she . . . ?" Lane looked around but didn't see her anywhere. "Hmph. Oh well . . . ." He closed the gap and waited to get his lunch.

- - -

Yuffie looked up from her hands to the sound of a 'swoosh'. She narrowed her eyes at the boy standing in the weird, transittal doorway. Balanced on his arms were two trays of food, which smelled utterly delicious to her from where she sat.

The boy entered and came around her bed to sit at the little stool at her bedside. "Hi," he greeted and settled the extra tray on her lap. He mumbled a quick apology when his hand accidently bumped into her arm and turned to his food.

She studied him for which seemed like hours before asking: "What's your name?" She quickly covered her mouth and coughed. Her voice was still very hoarse from the lack of speech, so it hurt--and itched like crazy--when she spoke.

Lane reached over and gently patted her back. Yuffie whispered a hoarse "thanks."

Seeing that she was going to be alright, Lane smiled. "My name's Michaels. Lane Michaels."

The friendly smile on his face, suddenly made Yuffie want to smile too--which she did then later regretted. She winced and licked her chapped lips. "Ow . . . ." She attempted to smile again, saying, "Who knew smiling would hurt so much?"

Lane chuckled. "Only if ones lips are as chapped as yours."

Yuffie laughed, then began coughing again.

"Are you okay?" Lane watched her with concern as she sat there wheezing. He grab her juice bottle off the tray and stuck a straw through the aluminiated top. Handing it to her, he said, "Here. This should help."

Yuffie grabbed the bottle and sipped the juice through the straw. She soon sighed and leaned back. "Thanks. I really needed that."

"No prob." Lane sat back and continued eating his meal. Then as if remembering something, he said, "Oh yeah!" He sat up and reached in his back pocket of his pants and retreived something small, round and long. He handed the acquired object to her. "That's my sisters. I don't think she would mind you having it. You need it more than she does anyway."

Yuffie picked up the round object and realized it was a small tube of clear lip gloss. She showed her appreciation by clutching it in her hands and giving him a tiny smile of gratitude.

Lane smiled back. "So what's your name?"

Yuffie looked down at her hands.

"I mean, you don't have to tell me, if you don't want to. Sorry."

"No. It's alright." She looked up and grinned at him. "Yuffie. My name's Yuffie Kisaragi. I'm the greatest ninja in the world!" She took on a saddened expression. "At least, I was anyway."

Lane studied her for a minute before slowly returning to his food. _I wonder what's wrong with her? Why does she sound so depressed?_

"Hey . . . ."

"Oh! I see that she's up already. Hello Lane."

Lane looked up and greeted Doctor Kadowaki with a smile. "Hi."

"So where's your tail?" She looked around for this female counterpart and looked askance.

"I don't know. She just ran off without telling me anything, so I came by myself."

"Ah. Well, no matter. Oh, I see you got our friend here some lunch? Very considerate of you." The doctor came around and began her daily inspection of the girl.

Yuffie pulled back, nearly tipping her tray over on to the floor.

"Whoa. A bit jumpy, eh? I'm Doctor Kadowaki. If you'll let me, I'd like to do my daily routine of checking your stats."

Yuffie scrutinized the older woman before deeming her trustworthy. She held out her arm for the doctor to take a pulse and went along with everything else she did in her check up.

After she was done, Kadowaki straightened up. "Well, Miss . . . ?"

"Yuffie."

Kadowaki smiled. "Miss Yuffie. You are completely healthy! How's your throat, dear?"

Yuffie reached up and touched her throat. "Hurts like hell."

Kadowaki laughed. "I would think so, after all this time. You _have_ been asleep for quite a while. It won't be long before the pain goes away. Drinking plenty of fluids always helps."

Yuffie frowned. "How long was I out? And where is this place? What happened to me?"

Kadowaki went around the bed, so that she was now standing next to Lane. "Well, hun, I'd say you've been out for about a week now. You're currently at the infirmary here at Balamb Garden, which is located on the Balamb Islands. As for what happened to you, I just don't have a clue." She patted Lane's shoulder firmly. "Maybe this boy here could help you out a bit on that subject. Lane?"

Lane looked up at the doctor. "Yes?"

"Take care of her for me. I have some things to finish up back in the office. If something comes up, you know where to find me. Okay?"

Lane nodded and watched the doctor exit the room.

". . . So, how . . . ?"

Lane turned back to the girl sitting up on the cot.

Yuffie looked at him with intense, gray eyes.

He told her what he knew. How he found her, rescued her and visited daily with his sister to make sure she was going to be alright. At the end of his short story, he found Yuffie gazing at him with child-like wonder in her eyes.

"I . . . fell out . . . of the s-sky?" If there were a comic book, you'd see question marks popping up all around Yuffie's head, for she was that confused.

Lane nodded slowly. ". . . Right out of the sky . . . and into the ocean."

Yuffie blinked her eyes. "And you . . . _rescued_ me?"

He again nodded slowly.

Yuffie smiled for a brief moment then stared at her hands on her lap. "Um . . . Thank you." If it weren't for him, she'd be dead by now. Both here . . . and there. She would've never been able to get Leon back into their own world then. She would never been able to _see_ her friend, much less, talk to him. Even if it were for the last. But how is this? This is supposed to be a dream, right? Then why is everything here so . . . so _tangible_? Even the people here. They _act_, moved and appeared to _think_ like real people. How could this be . . . ?

Lane watched the expressions on Yuffie's faced and found them rather amusing in a way. One minute her eyebrows would draw together in contemplation, then in the next they would raise as if she pieced together and solved a very difficult puzzle. Yes, he found that watching her was very amusing indeed.

"Uh, Yuffie? Are you okay?"

Yuffie turned to him with a dazed expression. "Huh?" She asked stupidly.

Lane chuckled softly. Stupidity aside, he asked again, "Are you okay?"

Yuffie shook her head, "No . . . No, I mean yes. I'm okay. Thanks."

"Where'd you come from anyway? Maybe you can help me prove my sister wrong about my theory.

Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "What theory, might I ask, is that?"

Lane smiled a bit. "It really _is_ stupid when you think about it. But seeing you here makes me think otherwise."

Yuffie waited.

"This is crazy, but are you from another world? I mean, tell me, could it be possible?" Lane looked hopeful, but at the same time dreaded the answer. Why? He didn't really know. So he just waited for Yuffie's answer.

The girl in question, however, was at a lost for words. What could she say? Seriously. What _can_ she say? Wasn't she supposed to honor the World Order? But what did that have to do with things in this place? It was a dream . . . right? Nothing more than a dream. She only came to find one person and that person was Leon. If she could just find and talk to him, maybe then they could go home. And what did they call this place? Balamb Garden? . . . Why'd that sound so familiar?

* * *

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Wahoo! This was a quick update AND it was longer. A lot longer. I think I was half asleep when I wrote this chapter, but for some odd reason, it was a hell of a lot better than the last. Sorry about that. Leaving you all with a crappy chapter last update. Anyway, I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas. I certainly did (^^). Oh yeah, remember that mini-shrine to FF8 I did to help you all out and stuff? Well, I updated that too. You can now see drawings I did of my characters, Taeon, Lane and Saori; I'll do one of Dion later. There's also now a mailinglist, if you'd like to join it. That way I'll keep you up to date with my fic. You can check them out here: **http://ff8.amekaze.net/**. I hope you like the drawings! Anyway, thanks for your reveiws and have a great New Year!

- - N a t s u

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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


	7. Chapter Seven

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter Seven  
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Back in Leon's bedroom at Hollow Bastion, Aerith and Cloud had just finished the spell and were getting ready to get some much needed rest when the most phenomenal thing happened. Yuffie's body suddenly began to glow a strange ethereal light and then . . . disappeared.

"Wh-Wh-What happened? Where'd she go!?"

Aerith searched frantically under the bed, the closet, sheets and blankets, but she couldn't find her friend anywhere in sight. Cloud helped her look around Leon's room too, but came up empty handed as well. He watched her search Leon's room all over again and finally went to her when she began to sob.

"This . . . This wasn't supposed to happen! Cloud, where could she have gone!? Where!?" She buried her face in Cloud's chest and cried, her tears making a wet spot on his shirt.

Cloud wrapped his arms about her and began to rub her back up and down in soothing circles. Though he didn't show it, Cloud was also upset about his friend's sudden disappearance. He was pretty sure they did nothing wrong with the spell, so what happened to Yuffie's body? Where did she go?

Something told him to look on the bed, so he did. There, where Yuffie's head had been lying, was a thin, gold, chained necklace with an oval locket attached to it. He pulled back from Aerith and wandered over to the bed to examine the small object.

"Hey Aerith, isn't this Yuffie's?"

Aerith wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffled. She walked the short distance to where Cloud was standing and gazed upon the object. Her green eyes widened considerably when she realized that it was indeed Yuffie's locket.

She picked it up by it's chain and held it up to her face for a more closer inspection. "It . . . It is! Cloud, it is Yuffie's! But why . . . ?"

Cloud only shook his head in response. Only the Gods knew why Yuffie was no longer here and why this lone necklace of hers was left behind.

"I wonder if maybe it fell off her neck while she was sleeping. Or maybe the chain broke!" Aerith let the thin chain glide across her fingertips, seeing if indeed the chain had broke. Seeing the clasp secured tightly together concluded that it hadn't.

"That's odd. Yuffie hasn't taken this off for months now. It was gift from . . . from . . . ." Aerith's eyes roamed across the bed until they settled on the now only occupant of the bed. Leon.

Cloud glance from the necklace Aerith was holding to the comatose Leon. "He gave _that_ to _Yuffie_?"

Aerith rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah. It wasn't a birthday present or anything. He just came up to her one day and shoved it under her nose while we were talking in the library." She sighed and plopped down in the chair by Leon's bedside, obviously worn out with the recent events. "He didn't tell her anything, but she seemed real happy about it and had tears in her eyes. All he said was 'You're welcome' and left. I thought it was pretty weird."

Cloud knelt beside her and tooked the necklace from her fingers gently. "I wonder why something like this would make Yuffie so happy. She's never worn any sort of trinkets before. What's so special about this?"

Aerith covered her mouth and giggled. "Maybe it was because Leon gave it to her that she wears it all the time."

Cloud snorted. "Yeah right. Leon and Yuffie? Come on, Aerith." He stood, shaking his head.

Aerith blinked innocently up at him. "What? You don't think it could happen? Age difference aside, I think it could be _quite_ possible. I mean look at us. We made it happen, right?"

Cloud laughed. "That doesn't even come close. I may be younger than you, Aerith, but only by one year." He scoffed and turned away. "Please."

Aerith put her fist on her hips and scowled at him. "Well, whether you believe it or not, I still think it could happen."

Cloud turned back to her and again knelt at her side. He held up the necklace again and gave it a once over. He brought it closer to his face and then cupped it in his hands.

"There's a crack on the locket." Cloud ran his index finger along the gold face of the locket and then turned it on its side. It opened. Next thing he knew, Aerith swiped it from his hand. He blinked.

"Oh my . . . ." Aerith studied the now open locket with shocked eyes.

"What is it?" Cloud eyes leaning toward her.

"There are pictures. Pictures of . . . of Yuffie's parents!"

"Wow. Really?" He raised himself up a bit to get a better look at the inside of the locket. Though the small pictures were worn, a bit torn and faded, he could still make out the stern looking man on one side and the beautiful, smiling woman on the other.

"Shit. It's Godo and Miyumi!"

Aerith cuffed his ear for swearing before closing the small locket. "Yes, I could see that for myself. It's no wonder, now, why she was so happy. Leon must've found it somewhere and gave it to her because he knew that she would appreciate it."

Cloud stood once again and sighed heavily. "Maybe we should go to bed now."

His little Flower Girl became suddenly angry at this. "But we _have_ to do something!"

Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well, we can't. The only thing we _can_ do is wait."

Knowing that he was right, saltine tears once again cascaded down her cheeks. "You . . . You're right." Cloud watched her quickly wipe her tears away and stand up. As soon as she did, he wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey, it'll be alright. Something tells me that she's going to be fine, where ever she is. She'll be fine, Aerith." He looked down into her eyes and planted a soft kiss on her forehead.

Aerith buried her head beneath his chin, sighing wearily. "I hope you're right." Pulling back out of his arms, she gave him a small smile tinged with sadness. "Now let us rest . . . and wait."

The two walked out the door and softly closed it behind them.

* * *

"So you talked to her then!? How was she? What's her name? Was she awesome!? Well, come on, man. Tell me!"

Lane rubbed his temples, trying--though he found it futile--to mentally block out his sister's excited babble.

"Alright. If you could just calm yourself down a bit, maybe I'll tell you."

Almost immediately, Taeon sat herself down on his bed in his dorm room and appeared to await his answers patiently. The slight shaking of his bed, however, told him that his twin was still tembling with contained excitement.

Lane looked at her skeptically, before seating himself beside her.

"Well, after you ran off, to only Hyne knows where, I grabbed lunch and head down to the infirmary like we always did for the past week." He leaned back so that he was now lying with his hands folded behind his head. "She seemed a bit uneasy around me at first, but after a while we began talking to one another. She told me her name's Yuffie Kisaragi. Strange name, don't you think? Anyway, I was going to ask if she could borrow some of your clothes." At her quizzical stare, Lane sat up and reached over to lightly flick her forehead with his finger. "Her clothes were ruined, remember? We tried getting the salt out of them, but it wouldn't come out."

Taeon's eyes brightened and she nodded. "Of course! I'll go get some! Hey, what type of clothes do you think she would wear?" She frowned and tapped her chin lightly while she mused.

Lane sighed. "How the hell should I know? Use what she was wearing the night we found her to help you out."

Taeon grinned. "Right! Well, I'm off. We're still meeting at the Quad, right? Tilmitt will be pretty catty once she gets back from Esthar and finds that her plans for the upcoming Garden Festival aren't setting into motion already. I heard from one of my friends, that we didn't have one last year, due to Ultimecia and the Time Compression thing."

Lane smiled and ruffled her hair. "I'll be there. Oh, and remember to bring her some shoes, too, or something. You look like you both would be about the same size."

Taeon took out a comb from her front pocket and fixed her hair. She stuck out her tongue at him and grimaced. "Yeah, yeah. Everyone's been doing that to me a lot lately."

Lane tilted his head and smiled. He reached up to ruffle her hair again. His twin yelped and hopped out his door, nearly running into his roommate as she did.

"Sorry about that," she grinned.

A short boy with light brown hair righted himself before giving the older girl a small smile. "Hallo, Tae. Visiting again?"

Taeon beamed down at the boy and marched toward their main door. "Yep. And now I'm leaving! See you later, bro. Asriel."

Both boys wave bye as she exited the door.

Lane sighed and slouched a bit. "I hope she remembers the shoes . . . ."

- - -

Taeon happily skipped down the hallways of the dormitory, hardly mindful of where she was going and who she ran into. For some odd reason, she had been finding herself a bit more cheery than usual. She was never this hyper, _or_ this excited and happy. Things seemed to have changed rather drastically without her knowing it since that mysterious girl showed up--who literally crashed down into their world.

In her right hand, she held a bundle of clothes, which she brought for their foreign guest, and in the other she held a pair of light-gray, slip-on shoes that had red strips running along their sides. She held her possessions close, so as not to drop them on her way over to the infirmary. On her way there, she suddenly found herself walking along side a familiar figure. One she had meet only yesterday.

"Where you heading off too, Michaels?" A deep, voice asked.

Taeon gasped in surprise and lost her footing. She suddenly found herself falling, falling, falling . . . .

"Watch out!"

Seifer caught the back of her sleeveless, hooded, maroon skirt just in time, before her face actually kissed the floor goodnight. He reeled her in and steadied the girl on her feet.

"Uh . . . thanks?" Taeon glanced around and was on her way again. Though this time she wasn't skipping merrily away, but instead was walking as fast as she could toward the infirmary.

Seifer raised an eyebrow before chasing after her.

Taeon kept glancing over her shoulder as she walked, each time she did, her blue eyes meet that of fiery green. She speed up and was now practically running.

"Why are you following me!?" She yelled. She was almost there. Almost. There.

"Why are you running?" Seifer yelled back. "You know that's a violation of school grounds."

Taeon sucked in air and slowed to a fast paced walked. There was no way she was going to have detention again. With that one-eyed woman watching her closely yesterday, she hardly survived. And _why_ exactly was she running? As Seifer caught up to her, she was careful not to look at him and kept her eyes straight ahead.

Seifer ignored the glares and curses he was getting from the other students and kept his attention on the girl walking beside him. He didn't know why he decided to come back to this place when he knew what it would be like once he did.

While he was in Fisherman's Horizon, he concluded that he was running away from problems he didn't want to face--basically himself. So what better place to come back to then Balamb Garden? Of course people hated and feared him here, but at least they didn't bother him or his companions. The commander was sure to object to his return too, but he never gave a damn what he said or did anyway. He'd just go on as he pleased, like he normally did, and stay out of people's way.

He smirked at the image of Chickwuss's face when he saw him at the conference meeting early this morning. The petite, blond, martial artist just seemed to radiate with rage when he first set eyes on him. And the other one, Quistis, seemed rather cool as she perceived him, too. Barely acknowledging him through out the entire meeting. Seifer sighed and smiled at the memory. Always the ice queen his former instructor was.

He snapped out of his thoughts at the distinct sound of a door sliding open and then closing. Seifer stood staring rather lost at the gray door before him before opening it for himself and entering. They were at the infirmary? But why? Seifer made his way down the gray corridor, looking in each room he passed for the girl, who appeared to have vanished before his very eyes.

He paused in his steps at the sound of someone approaching him.

"You lost, Almasy?"

Seifer calmly turned around and greeted the aging doctor before with a small, upward twist to his lips. "Kadowaki."

Doctor Kadowaki nodded in turn. "What brings you here?" She asked, while casually tucking a hand into one of the pockets of her white lab coat.

"Just passing through and thought I'd say hi to my favorite doctor."

Kadowaki blinked at his offhand answer and chuckled, shaking her graying head. "Ha! Didn't see that one coming. Tell me why you're really here."

At that moment, Taeon's multi-colored head peaked out from one of the rooms. "Oi, Kadowaki! You have any more paper cu--What are _you_ doing here?" She asked with a scowl as she leveled her eyes on Seifer. Just as he was about to answer, she quickly brushed him off. "Whatever. Where's the doctor?" She asked, her voice turning cool at the sight of him.

Taking note that Seifer's broad shoulders and tall stature blocked the young martial artists view of her, Kadowaki stepped out from behind him and lifted her hand in acknowledgement.

"I'm here, Michaels. What is it that you needed?" She asked with a polite smile. Her smile broadening as she heard Seifer cursing under his breath at having been cut off so abruptly.

Taeon scowled at Seifer before turning a smile over to the doctor. "I was wondering if you have any more cuppies. The girl Yuffie is having a coughing fit, but there's no more cups in here to get her some water."

At the sound of coughing, wheezing and strangled voice trying to speak, Kadowaki rushed past both Seifer and Taeon and entered the room where said girl was kept.

Taeon spared Seifer a sideways glance before following in the doctors footsteps, the sliding door closing after her with finality.

Seifer narrowed his eyes at the closed door before shaking his head and muttering, "I guess that means I should leave." He shrugged his shoulders walked off. "Whatever. I have work to do anyway."

- - -

"Are you okay, Yuffie?" Doctor Kadowaki asked, seating herself on the visitor's stool by her patient's bedside. She gently rubbed her patients back until her coughing fit subsided.

Yuffie rubbed her sore throat while trying unsuccessfully to blink the tears of pain her coughing had caused away from her eyes. Afraid she might begin coughing again, she jerkedly nodded her head a couple times in answer to the doctor's question.

Kadowaki sighed worriedly.

"Taeon, could would please go to my office for me? In there should be a small supply of cups in one of the gray cabinets."

Taeon nodded her head before exiting the room.

Turning back to her patient, Kadowaki waited patiently for Taeon to return. She took at moment to study the girl more closely.

_Is this her?_, Kadowaki mused. _Her name is exactly the same as it is in the notes I took. It couldn't it?_

Yuffie's shinobi senses kicked in during those few moments. Almost immediately after Taeon's departure did she sense that she was being thoroughly examined. It wasn't uncomfortable, this feeling, but it wasn't welcoming either. She didn't like being examined so closely, no matter who the person. It left her feeling vunerable. A feeling she hated.

"Yes?" She asked quietly, having become tired of the sudden scrutiny.

Startled, Kadowaki glanced up at the girl and meet a stormy pair of the grayest eyes she had ever seen. "Oh, please excuse me, Yuffie. It's just that I was thinking of the order made by my superiors to inform you of your current situation." Kadowaki fiddled her small flashlight pen with her hands, only slightly embarrassed at having been caught staring. "Well, the school here has done some very thorough research on you and your background, but in the end came up with nothing. You see, unless you _do_ have family that we can contact, we have no choice but to house you within these walls or that of one of the other two academys."

At this news, Yuffie's mouth hung wide open in shock. This is how Taeon found her upon her return.

The young martial artist burst into the room with a loud "Ta-da!" She presented a small, palm sized cup before her proudly with a smile of victory.

Kadowaki sighed. "Oh good! You found them." She stood and retrieved the plastic covered cup from Taeon's out stretched hand. "Thank you. Now, if you young ladies will excuse me, I'll go get you some water. I'll be back soon."

Taeon mockingly saluted the doctor in SeeD fashion, with one arm close to her side and the other raised, but held close to the body with the palm facing inward.

Kadowaki snorted while pausing briefly on her way out. "You're going to get in trouble doing that one day, Michaels. You know how SeeDs take pride in what they do. Most anyway."

Taeon stuck her tongue out, then smiled. "I know. That's why I do it." She giggled cheerfully before bouncing her way over to the now vacant stool and seating herself down.

Kadowaki laughed. Just as she was exiting, she turned back to Yuffie. "Please think about what I said. Okay? It will all work out for the best. You'll see." She smiled reassuringly at the girl, the door sliding shut behind her quietly as she left.

Taeon turned to Yuffie and tapped her on the shoulder. "What's she talking about?"

Yuffie mentally shook herself out her shock and smiled at the girl beside her. "Nothing. I'm sorry, but what was your name again?"

Taeon beamed at this. "My name's Taeon! Michaels is my surname."

Her smile must have been contagious because Yuffie found herself beaming right back. "And my name's Yuffie Kisaragi." Her furrowed her brow. "Michaels . . . ." Her eyes widened suddenly. "I know! You're Lane's sister, right? The one that visited me yesterday. I should have known. I was wondering why you two looked oddly similar." Yuffie's smile widened at the realization.

Taeon perked up at the mention of her brother's name. "You know, there is a reason why we look so a like." Her blue eyes twinkled with amusement.

Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "That is . . . ?"

The martial artist grinned. "We're twins!"

The young shinobi blinked. "Wow. Really?" At Taeon's nod, Yuffie smiled. "This is my first time ever meeting twins before. You two are really different from one another though."

Taeon rolled her eyes and sighed, waving her off. "Tell me about it. So, anyway, I brought some clothes for you to change into since your own were ruined from the salt water. Lane and I tried our best to clean them; we had to throw them away in the end." She gave a small apologetic smile.

Yuffie grinned. "'s okay. It's really no loss on my part. Even if they were the only things I owned . . . ." She reached up and slowly began to rub her throat again and then suddenly stopped. Her eyes widened. She began to feel all around her neck and then looked around her sheets.

"Oh no. Oh no. Oh no," she muttered quietly in her search.

Taeon leaned forward and gently touched her arm. "Yuffie? What's wrong?"

Yuffie stopped what she was doing and rounded on Taeon. "Where? Where is it? My mother's locket!" She grabbed Taeon's forearms with trembling hands. "Please say you have it! Please . . . ."

Taeon warily reached up and gently took hold of Yuffie's wrist, making the distressed girl loosen her tight grip on her arms. "Yuffie . . . . There was no locket when we found you. Believe me when I say that. We were able to recover a few items, but the rest were either lost in the ocean or destroyed by the salt water. My brother is taking care of the stuff we found in the pouch you had wrapped around your waist up in his room. We can go get them when ever your ready to leave." She smiled, her blue eyes tinged with sadness.

Yuffie swallowed a sob and blinked back oncoming tears. She tried to return the smile, but found she couldn't. She opted for words instead. "Thank you."

Seeing that her new friend was going to be okay, Taeon stood up and stretched. "It's no problem. How 'bout I leave you to change now, eh? I'll go tell Kadowaki that I'm checking you out. After you're ready, I'll give you a tour of Garden and introduce you to some of the people I know. Lane's probably still up in his room, so we can swing by there too. Is all of this cool with you?"

Yuffie smiled. "Sure."

Taeon walked by the door to where a low bench was pushed against one side of the wall and grabbed the bundle of clothes and the pair of shoes that sat there. She walked back to Yuffie's bedside and handed them over to her.

"Um, I'm not sure if any of these will fit, but by the looks of it, they should be okay for the time being. Lane and I saved up some Gil to get you some new clothes. We felt pretty bad when we couldn't save yours." She smiled cheekily. "I like wearing dark colors, so I hope this is okay."

Yuffie unraveled the bundle and found that the clothes were indeed dark, but not too dark. One after another she held up a medium gray, seamless, tank top, which, she thanked the Gods, had a bra built into it's soft folds, and pair of dark gray, straight-legged capris that zipped up on the sides. The shoes were actually slip on sandals, that had only a thick gray adjustable strap and a black, one-inch sole that was very cushiony when she pressed her fingers down on it.

Yuffie chuckled when she finished her examination of her borrowed clothes. "You really went all out with gray, didn't you."

Taeon gasped with mock insult. "Oi, oi. I worked really hard picking out these clothes. But yes, I do love the color. At least you'll be matching!" She crossed her arms and grinned down at the smiling shinobi. "I picked whatever I thought would be comfortable for you. I even went out to buy you this!" She reached within the front pocket of her skirt and produced a small tube that was about an inch thick in diameter. She tossed it to Yuffie, whose face flushed a deep crimson when she finally uncapped the tube.

"Err, thanks. I guess . . . ," she murmured, hiding half her face behind her long bangs.

Taeon laughed. "Oh, c'mon, Yuffie. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. We're both girls, so it's okay. Besides, I couldn't just let you wander around with no clean underwear, right? Unless, of course, you prefer it that way . . . ." She stuck out her tongue.

Yuffie's face seemed to have gotten even redder, if that were possible. "T-thanks," she said again.

"I guess it's a good thing I got you boyshort panties instead of those flimsy looking things that most girls like to wear." She made a face at that. "I mean, who wants to wear something that would always ride up their as--"

Yuffie choke on a laugh. "O-okay! As I said two times already, thanks. I really appreciate what you and your brother are doing for me. So if you don't mind, I'd like to go ahead and change now."

Taeon laughed softly to herself. "Alright. Sorry for holding you up. I'll be back in a bit!"

Yuffie nodded and waved as her multicolor-haired friend exited the room. She shook her head and smiled to herself. "That girl's pretty funny."

* * *

"We're finally home at last! Even though we were only away for a short while, it feels like forever since we left here." Rinoa threw open her arms and turned in a circle. "Well, come on! Don't just stand there. Let's go meet the others!"

Squall took the last step off of the Ragnorak's ramp and looked around.

_This_ place was home. _This_ place was where he belonged. So why did it feel so alien to him now?

* * *

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And here's another chapter for you. I'm sorry I took so long with this one. A lot of stuff happened in the past few weeks and I've been pretty busy with work and class. I recently caught a stomach flu too, so I haven't been online lately due to that. Annnnyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that it wasn't too confusing for you. Sorry, in advance. Anyway, I'll be going now, so peace out, everyone. Be cool, review, and adieu!

- - N a t s u

We now have a forum for Squffie lovers now. You can find the link to it on my profile. Check it out when you have time and I'll be seeing you there, if you decide to join (^_^)!

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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


	8. Chapter Eight

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter Eight  
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Not even a week had past and already Squall was buried up to his neck with paper work. Student requests, conference papers, counseling, plans for the upcoming field exam, et cetera. He sat forward in his chair and reached for the pile of leave requests that had stacked up on his desk one by one by the SeeDs of Balamb Garden. He rubbed his eyes wearily and leaned back with an audible sigh.

Xu, who had been quietly observing her superior and trying not to, up until now, laughed behind a slender hand.

"I'm glad to see you're finding this amusing, Xu. Would you like to split the pile and suffer together?" Squall asked dryly.

Xu immediately straightened behind her desk and coughed. "Of course not, Commander Leonhart, Sir!" Her expression was serious, but lacked sincerity. Soon she was bent over her desk laughing on his behalf.

Squall rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "Whatever," he muttered. Although he said this in his usual cool tone, the corners of his mouth quirked up into a slight smile.

A knock sounded on the office doors and then, "Squall?"

Squall looked up from his work and looked askance to the middle-aged doctor standing there in the doorway and motioned for her to enter.

Doctor Kadowaki stepped further into room, nodding a greeting to Xu as she passed by the young woman's desk.

"You're working hard, huh?" She smiled as came to a stop in front of the young commander's desk. Her smile broadened when he regarded her with cool eyes and an are-you-kidding-me expression set upon his handsome features.

"I know you didn't come here to see how I'm getting along, so if you'd please . . . ."

Kadowaki chuckled as she handed over a thin, brown folder. "Correct."

Squall stared at the offending object and made no move to retrieve the folder. _More paperwork_, he thought with some annoyance.

Grinning now, Kadowaki leaned over and lightly tapped his brown head with the folder before setting it down before him. "Come, Squall. This is no time to be spacing out," she teased.

He muttered a curse under his breath before finally making a effort to reach forward and taking the folder in his hands. After a while of examining its contents, he asked, "What am I supposed to do with this? Take it to Cid." He began to hand the folder back to the aging doctor, but met resistence as she pushed it back toward him.

She snorted softly, "I did. 'Let Squall handle this stuff from now on' is what he said. Says he's getting too old." Kadowaki mutter something close to 'old my ass.'

Squall groaned and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was beginning to get a headache. Again. "That guy . . . . I swear he had this planned from the beginning. First, making me the commander and now this. He wants to push the responsibility of headmaster on to me as well. Can't someone else do this?" He asked, hope edging his words.

Kadowaki appeared to think for a moment before answering with a, "No. He wants you to do it." Not giving him a chance to speak, she began to head on her way out again. "Have a wonderful afternoon you two!" And she was gone.

Xu, who had made her way over to Squall's desk during the conversation, hid a smile as she plucked the folder out from his slack hands. "A new student?" She sighed, tapping the folder against his head, much like how the doctor did when she was there, only a little harder. "You're crying over this? Come on, man. You can get over and done with this a hell of a lot faster than all this crap." She waved her hand to the piles of papers on his desk.

Squall narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you do it then. You're better off than I am anyway."

Xu slowly backed away. "You didn't hear anything coming out of my mouth. Okay? Right!" She turned around and walked back to her desk, plopping down in her seat. She feigned being busy, shifting papers from hand to hand before writting something down with her pen.

Squall smirked to himself as he watched her. He sighed and turned to the new addition of work to be done. He didn't see the dark-haired woman stick her tongue out at him as he returned back to his work. Nor did he hear her silent prayer to Hyne for not being caught doing so. Seeing how irritable he was at the moment was proof that heads, or a head, would roll with one clean slice of his gunblade.

The young commander opened the folder and ran his eyes over its contents and photo once again. He signed his name on a few papers that required him to do so and and closed it back up. His eyes never left the folder as he leaned back in his seat.

- - -

"Cid. Cid! What is the meaning of this?" Squall strode forward and thrust the brown portfolio in front of the aging headmaster's face.

Unfazed, Cid reached up and gently pushed the folder down, looking straight into the young Commander's storming, blue, eyes with some hidden amusement.

"It is exactly what it is. Why do you ask, Commander?" Dull, blue, eyes crinkled behind gold-rimmed spectacles as they reguarded the young man before them warmly.

Squall opened his mouth to protest, but taking a look at the older man before him took all the words from his mouth. He sighed defeatedly and glared half-heartedly at the man, who, quite possibly, is the closest he would ever consider (now with the except of Laguna) a type of father figurehis aging mentor Cid Kramer.

Straightening up, Squall stood at attention and saluted. "I will support any decision made on your behalf, sir."

Cid chuckled and waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Now, Squall, you know I hate all that formality crap." The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled warmly. "Besides, I should be the one saluting here, Commander Leonhart." Knowing the younger man wouldn't do so without issuing an order, he added, "At ease."

Squall relaxed his position, though he still looked visibly tense in his posture. Seeing this, Cid stood and then slowly hobbled his way around the large, oak, desk to stand next to Balamb Garden's young commander. "Come, Squall. Maybe a walk will help ease this tension floating about you, eh?" He winked while reaching up to pat the younger man on the back.

Squall ran a hand through his hair and sighed loudly. "Whatever."

Cid laughed. "Same ol' Squall. Come now."

Side by side the two walkedhobbledalong. One bent over slightly with age and the other looking like he carried the weight of the world upon his broadening, young, shoulders.

* * *

Back in her office, Kadowaki narrowed her eyes as she went over the words before her once again for seeming the millionth time for the past couple weeks.

_This can't be possible._

Pushing away from her desk, she rotated herself on her swivel chair and glanced out her window in thought.

_...But if she is here, then it_ must_ be. Somehow . . . . But . . ._ how _is this possible?_

The doors to her office opened swiftlyquietlybehind her, but she took no notice, deep in her thoughts as she was.

"Um, Doctor?" A voice called softly. Getting no answer, they tried again, though a bit louder than before. "Doctor Kadowaki."

Startled, Kadowaki turned about, nearly tipping herself over in the process.

_Damn chairs_, she thought with a slight frown.

She looked up and met amused gray eyes. _It's her..._

"Ah! Miss Yuffie. How are you doing? Have you found your way around yet?"

Yuffie ignored her questions and instead asked her own. "Are _you_ okay? You look tired, Doctor."

Kadowaki smiled in reassurance, seeing the concern in the younger girl's eyes and also at the fact that someone else cared for her own well-being instead of the other way around.

_What a nice girl_, she mused.

"Why, yes! Of course I am," she replied with a warm smile. "Now what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Suddenly, the smile faded and her doctor's instincts came into play. "You're not feeling ill are you? Did something happen? Are you hurt?" She was now standing and making her way toward the younger girl. Her stethoscope automatically finding its way into her hand.

Yuffie stepped back suddenly, then realizing what she did, stopped and raised her hands up to ward off the older woman. "No, no! Nothing's wrong."

Kadowaki sighed, her shoulders relaxing visably. "Good. Good . . . ."

The young ninja slowly came forward. "Are you sure you're okay? Maybe you better lie down or somethin'."

_Why am I so worried? This isn't real. Right?_ She's_ not real._ Yuffie became a little sad at her last thought and retreated a couple steps. It had only been a couple days since she came to, yet she had already grown a kind of certain attachment to this place and it's people. She was so confused her head ached.

The doctor smiled once more and nodded her head. "I'm okay, Miss Yuffie. Nothing you should be worrying yourself about. I have lots of work to do today. I guess I'm just a little tired. But this is what I do." She smiled again.

"Erm, yeah. Okay." Yuffie bit her bottom lip with a pinch of doubt, but quickly overcame it when she remembered why she came here. "Did . . . did you send my papers in? I feel kind of bad for all the trouble I'm putting everyone through. Lane told me I shouldn't worry about it, but I can't help but wonder."

"Papers . . . ?" Kadowaki questioned. Then realization dawned when she knew what the young girl was talking about. "Oh, yes! Your papers. Of course." She coughed lightly. "Yes, I turned them in to the Headmaster this morning. Well, not exactly . . . ." She trailed off with a slight smirk. It vanished once again as she took on a more serious expression. "Yuffie, I know you thought about my words carefully, but I'm a bit curious about your choice of education. You know, it's not too late to change your mind. I could send word up to the main office and tell them you wa"

Yuffie put her hand up, cutting the aging doctor off mid-sentence. "My choice . . . is final, doctor." Seeing the worry in the doctor's eyes, Yuffie grinned. "I know full well the weight and responsibility of my decision. And I tell you now that you'll have nothing to worry about. 'Sides, if I'm lucky, I'll be put into the same class as my new friends."

Kadowaki chuckled and returned to her sit. "Oh, you're more than lucky, Miss Yuffie. Zell is currently the only Close Combat instructor on campus. We're still looking for more staff, but he's the best when it comes to the art of fighting. Though, he does have a few . . . well . . . . You know what, I'll let you see for yourself. That is, once your classes start." Now it was Kadowaki that grinned. "I'm wishing you all the luck, Miss Yuffie. Zell, even though he does like to kid around a lot, is serious with his position as instructor. I'm quite surprise, actually, that there was an opening in his class. He and a couple other of the young instructors are very popular with the students and a vacant spot in either one of their classes is very hard to come by."

Gray eyes narrowed in curiousity. _Younger instructors . . . ?_

"Uh, just exactly how _young_ are these instructors, Doctor?"

Kadowaki, leaning back and with a proud look and smile, answered, "Not much older than you, really. Your instructor, I'd say, is only a few months older than yourself." Seeing the shocked look on the younger girl's face and then the doubt, Kadowaki thought she should say something to reassure the girl. However, the second she opened her mouth to answer a student wandered into her office doubled over in pain. "Oh dear." She stood quickly and rushed to the ailing student's side. Remembering the other occupant in the room, she turned back to Yuffie with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Miss Yuffie, but duty calls."

Yuffie grinned. "Of course it does." Slowly, she began backing out of the room. "I'll just come again when you're not so busy. Thanks, Doctor Kadowaki, for everything you've done for me." Then she was gone.

Kadowaki smiled softly at the back of the departing girl before turning back to the task at hand. "Now what have we got here . . . ."

* * *

Yuffie wandered back down the gray corridor and smiled as she was greeted by one of her new friends.

"Lane! Thanks for waiting forwait. Where's your sister?" Yuffie looked around but couldn't find her multi-color-haired friend anywhere. Finally, her eyes wandered back up to met the soft, blue, eyes of her missing friend's young, twin, brother Lane.

"She was here less than a minute ago, but she saw something interesting near the lobby and left. She is always acting upon impluse." Lane sighed, then straightened up. "We can go on without her." Seeing the contemplative expression on the smaller girl's face, he stopped in mid-turn. "It's alright, Yuffie. She'll eventually meet again with us later." His lips softened with a smile. "You'll learn to ignore her after a while."

Yuffie, still bewildered, looked around once more before giving up with a grin. "Right!" She linked her arm with his (a habit she's beginning to pick up from Taeon) and slowly tugged him along.

A bit flustered by the young ninja's actions, Lane tried futile attempts to retrieve his arm, but her firm grip told him he wouldn't be released any time soon. He sighed and smiled when she turned and grinned at him again.

Soon he realized that they were wandering in no particular place and was instead doing just thatwandering. But then he began to study her movements and came to another realization.

_She's looking for something?_

He watched her further as she turned and stopped upon spotting a tall junior student with long, copper-brown, locks of hair rushing to his next class. She sighed,shook her head and then turned away, resuming her pace once again.

_No,_ he thought. _She's not looking for something, but_ someone._Come to think of it, she's been doing this since she was able to leave the infirmary on her own._

He noticed he was now almost stumbling with her new pace and took longer steps to keep up. The new pace she set for herself told him that she became determined. And when she turned her head again, he found that same determination marring her beautiful, round, face.

He turned his head away from her. _Beautiful? That's the second time now._ He thought.

He stopped suddenly, mid-stride. Upon that last thought, something dark crept inside his mind, his body and then his heart. He reached up and laid a hand there and felt an odd sensation that made him tremble.

Pain. He felt pain.

Having become almost totally absorb in his old feeling, he was only slightly aware of a pair of warm hands on his face, his forehead and the soft words of worry drifting to his ears.

Then he saw her. Long, black, hair and a pair of soft, crimson eyes. Her hands were the same as they have always been. Small, warm, and comforting.

". . . ane," she called out in her sultry voice. Her lips shaping gently as she said his name. ". . . Lane . . . ."

_S-Saori . . . ._

He closed his eyes and everything went black.

- - -

Yuffie's heart stopped as her friend's body hit the ground.

"What happened? Lane?" She rushed and knelt by his head, gently lifting it up and placing it on her lap. She looked around but there was hardly anyone around. "Class. Everyone is in class now." Thinking ahead, Yuffie took the light gray pullover she had, again, borrowed from Taeon and folded it into a make-shift pillow. She lift her friend's dark head again and placed the pullover beneath it. She shivered when the cool air of the well, air-conditioned school, touched her bare arms. Standing, she began to run back toward the infirmary, which she now took note was completely on the other side of her.

_Did we really come this far?_ She mused. She stopped briefly to look where her current position was and then kept on going. _Damn this place. Why does it have to be so freakin' big?_ She shook her head in frustration. "Damn _me_ for not paying attention!" She scolded herself darkly.

Unbeknownst to the little ninja, she was being watched by three pairs of eyes.

"Ah, a student, eh? So much energy, these kids. Must be out for practice."

A pair of cool, blue eyes turned to look down at the older person walking beside him incredulously.

"Class is in session now, isn't it? No one should be out at this time."

Cid chuckled and waved it off as nothing. "Oh my. So it is. But look there, Squall." Cid lifted a finger and pointed in the direction of the girl, who was now being intercepted by the head of the Disciplinary Committee Seifer Almasy. "Looks like Almasy is already taking care of it."

Squall looked back and found the girl being dragged off firmly by the arm. He sighed. From where he was standing, he could hear the girl's voice echoing off the walls toward him as she yelled and tried pulling herself free.

"Let go o' me, you bastard! I need to get to the infirmary! Damn you!" Yuffie's eyes blazed angrily at the older man standing before her. Then they widened as she got an idea. "I know! You see" 

"Did you know you're not supposed to be wandering about when class is in session?" Seifer asked, completely ignoring the poor ninja's pleas.

"Y-yes, I know that. But I'm no"

"And did you realize that running is prohibited on school grounds, unless of course you happened to be training?"

"No . . . . But I"

Seifer turned cold, green, eyes to the dumbfound ninja and smirked. "I see. A day's worth detention then."

Yuffie fumed. "I don't have time for this," she growled. She then sprang in the air and cart wheeled backward and then somersaulted clean over the stunned blonde's head.

Seifer, shocked by the girl's actions, released her arm when she cart wheeled. He became angry suddenly when she turned her head and grinned mockingly at him. He watched her turn back and run like the very devil was on her tail. He palmed his forehead and grumbled a long list of obscenities under his breath. Someone, other than his rival, bested him. And this someone was a _girl_. He turned the opposite direction and stomped off.

A ways away, Cid laughed while Squall looked on with a slight twist to his lips. "Ah . . . . Now that is quite interesting. I didn't think Seifer was one to give up so easily. I was sure he'd be chasing her down right about now." Cid straightened up and glanced up at Squall. "Just shows how much he's changed since that time."

Squall suppressed a low growl and the flame of a rage that had long been buried since then. He relaxed and sighed loudly. No one needn't explain to him what "that time" was.

_It's in the past,_ he told himself. _Get over it._

"That girl . . . ." Cid mused aloud. "I've never seen her before. Well, I'm quite sure she's not a student."

Squall tried picturing the girl's face again and couldn't. And even though he was sure he had never meet the girl before, her voice and what he saw of her seemed oddly familiar. Suddenly, he remembered the picture and then the name. It rolled off his tongue and passed through his lips before he could stop it.

"Yuffie Kisaragi . . . ."

Cid glanced up with questioning eyes. "Squall? You know that girl?"

Squall shook himself from his thoughts. "No. Not really anyway. That folder Kadowaki brought to the office earlier though . . . ." He trailed off.

Cid's eyes became thoughtful for a second before lighting up with an amused twinkle. "Ah! So she's the one the school's been going on about for the past couple weeks now. Seems she finally made up her mind and decided to become a student."

Squall looked at the older man from the corner of his eyes before shifting it over to where he last seen the girl.

_Yuffie . . . ._

- - -

Once Yuffie got back to the infirmary she grimaced, reaching down to gingerly touch her leg.

"Damn, it hurts . . . ," she muttered painfully.

She had been out of training for only a couple weeks, yet her muscles were already sore from her actions earlier. That alone told her that she was getting out of shape. She mentally made a note to ask her friends about a good place to train later. For now, one of those friend's needed her help.

Now at the infirmary, Yuffie burst into the doctor's office and shouted, "Doctor Kadowaki!"

Startled, said doctor rushed out of one of the rooms to meet her. "Miss Yuffie! My dear, you're so pale. What's wrong?" She asked, taking in the kunoichi's appearance.

Yuffie shook her head and motioned her to follow her. "I'm fine, but Lane. Lane collasped and is unconcious!"

Kadowaki took on a fearful expression and placed a hand firmly on the ninja's shoulder. "What happened? Where is he?"

Yuffie quickly raked her mind for the location in which she left her friend, but shook her head again. Even though she's been shown around, she still wasn't all that familiar with her new surroundings just yet. "I can't place where he is now, but I can show you!" She ran ahead and stopped to wait for the doctor. "I don't know what happened exactly. We were just walking around when he stopped suddenly. I asked him what was wrong and called out his name several times, but he didn't respond. He had a glazed look to his eyes when he looked at me though."

Kadowaki nodded her graying head and quickly followed the younger girl. Together, they passed by the pink entrance of the Quad, the red of the Cafeteria, the gray of the Dormitories and then suddenly found theirselves near the yellow entrance of the Parking Lot.

As they rounded one last corner, Yuffie saw the immobile form of Lane, laying just as she left him.

"There he is! Looks like no one else came by. Oh no! I forgot to check if he was still breathing!" Yuffie pulled on her hair in distress and immediately ran up to his prone form and held two slender fingers above his slightly parted lips. A whoosh of air left her body when she found him breathing out softly. She silently cursed her carelessness and mentally kicked herself.

Kadowaki smiled softly at the girl's distress and immediately went to work. A few minutes passed by and Kadowaki had Yuffie help her to move him to a near by bench after she deemed it safe to move him. So with a big effort on both their parts, they successfully moved Lane's unconcious body on to the bench. It might have been much easier if Yuffie hadn't over-exterted herself earlier, but it can't be helped now. She picked up the folded pullover from the ground and once again placed it under Lane's head, so that it wasn't sitting uncomfortably on the hard surface of the bench.

Kadowaki motioned her aside and she stepped back automatically. The doctor knelt beside Lane while reaching into her one of the many pockets of her lab coat and pulled out a small tube of something. She uncapped the tube and waved it gently under Lane's nose.

Lane turned his face away from the smelling salts and wrinkled his nose. Nearby, Yuffie sighed with relief. Not long after did his blue eyes open and he turned his head to look, with blurry eyes, at both the doctor and ninja.

"Lane? How you doin', kid?" Kadowaki asked in a motherly fashion.

"I . . . I . . . augh . . . what happened?" He asked, his voice slightly gruff. Slowly, he began to sit up, blinking away the blurriness from his eyes and trying to will the ache in his chest and head away.

Kadowaki sat next to him on the bench and gently reached out to rub his back in soothing motions. "I think you had another one of your attacks," she said softly. "Do you remember anything before you lost conciousness?"

Lane looked at the aging woman next to him and then at the young, gray-eyed girl standing off to the side of him. Absently, he reached up to touch his chest and then gripped the cloth of his shirt in a fist before relaxing. "I'm . . . I'm fine. I d-don't remember anything," he told the doctor while looked down at the floor. Then he looked back up and meet the ninja's concerned eyes. "I'm sorry, Yuffie. I didn't mean to worry you like I did."

Yuffie smiled and reached up to touch his shoulder, only to have him flinch away from her. Her eyes became misty at this and she dropped her hand back down to her side. "It's okay. I-I'm just glad to see you're okay. I shouldn't have dragged you along with me aimlessly. So I guess I should be the one apologizing."

Seeing the hurt look in her eyes, Lane immediately regretted pulling away. He shook his head, but didn't say anything else. An attack she said. Why now? He hadn't had one since . . . then. He had been fine up until now.

Kadowaki looked at the emotion warring within the boy's eyes and thought she had better have a talk with him sooner or later.

"Lane?" She said softly. Blue eyes slowly shifted to her. "I think it would be best if you called it a day, kid. Maybe you're just feeling stressed and need to relax, eh?"

He sighed and nodded his head. With the help of the doctor, he steadily got to his feet.

Kadowaki's eyes flickered behind Yuffie where she caught sight of an agitated Seifer silently making his way toward them.

Yuffie tensed visably at the sound of a familiar voice.

"You! Pulling a stunt like that. Instead of a days detention, you're in for a weeks worth," Seifer ground out between clenched teeth.

Yuffie spun on her heels and narrowly missed being grabbed. "I didn't do anything wrong! I swear I didn't! You're the one that kept me from what needed to be done. You asshole!"

Cold, green, eyes glared menacingly down at her and she glared right back.

_If only I had a shuriken. I'd shove one right up his tight as_

"You and you. Sit," Kadowaki ordered gruffly while pointing to the bench.

Both Yuffie and Seifer growled at one another before doing what they were ordered to do. The two sat as far as they could away from each other and basically acted like a couple of stubborn five-year-olds.

With a frown forming between her eyes, Kadowaki paced before them. "Now. What's your damage, you two?"

Seifer didn't speak and instead glared at the floor.

Yuffie glared at the man sitting next to her while cracking her knuckles.

The doctor sighed heavily before addressing Yuffie.

"Like I said. I was only trying to get to the infirmary when this dumbas" She got a stern glare from the doctor and quickly made amends to her sentence. "when this . . . this poor excuse of a _person_ kept me from getting there immediately," Yuffie explained with a huff.

Kadowaki then addressed Seifer.

Seifer growled. "She was running, doc! That's a violation of school grounds. So _of course_ I stopped her. How the hell was I do know that she'd perform some damn trick and escape?"

"Oh dear Hyne!" Kadowaki pinched the bridge of her nose and propped a fist on a plump hip. "Seifer, I know you meant will in this case, but what you did could have seriously caused a lot of problems. And, Yuffie," Yuffie looked up and caught an amused twinkle in the doctor's eyes, "what did you do to escape?" Even Lane, who had been silent this entire time, looked on with interest.

Seifer grunted softly, but Yuffie had a grin plastered on her face.

"I told you that you didn't have anything to worry about with my abilities at becoming a cadet, Doctor."

Lane's eyes widened and he stared at Yuffie. "You didn't. B-but why?"

Yuffie smiled at her blue-eyed friend. "Because being a regular student here just doesn't cut it for me. I'm used to more strenuous activities instead of having to just sit down and do paper work."

Seifer turned to the girl next to him with his cool gaze. "You're not a student?" He asked.

Yuffie whipped her head in his direction, her lips tightening to a thin, white, line. "If you had just stopped to _listen_ we wouldn't be here now," she retorted angrily.

Seifer's gaze softened, but he didn't say anything. He stood, nodded to the doctor before quietly walking away.

Yuffie gaped at his retreating back and turned back to the doctor. "What's up with him?"

Kadowaki sighed and shook her head. "Nothing, Miss Yuffie. He has been stressed since he came back. That's all."

_Came back?_ Yuffie thought. She wanted to ask more but found the doctor's attention was now focused on Lane, who looked visably pale and wavered slightly on his feet. He looked like he was going to pass out again.

She stood quickly and got there in time to support him as he lost his balance and began to fall. He gasped sharply in surprise and quickly aligned himself back up again. Yuffie didn't let go though and held an arm around his waist firmly. She told him to drape an arm about her shoulders and to use her body as support if he felt like he was going to fall again.

"Thanks," he murmured, becoming flustered once again.

"No prob!" Yuffie grinned up at him before turning to the doctor. "I'll help him get to his room."

Kadowaki smiled and nodded before watching them slowly make their way toward the dormitories entrance.

"Ah, Doctor! How are you doing?"

Kadowaki turned to the voice and smiled broadly. "Cid! I've been better. You?"

Cid chuckled and closed the distance between himself and the doctor. "Pretty good. Just taking a walk around campus. It's nice to get out of the office once in a while." He reached up and pushed his glasses up with his fore finger, before asking, "Those kids giving you problems, Kadowaki?"

Kadowaki wandered over to the bench and plopped herself down. She shook her head before replying. "No. Just some misunderstandings and . . . stuff," she said lamely.

Cid hooted before joining her on the bench, leaving his bored companion to silently stand to the side. "Stuff, eh? Squall here and myself witnessed the happenings from the elevator earlier. We had no clue that Michaels was down here all this time. If we had, we'd have helped out."

Squall grunted before replying. "Rather, you would have made _me_ help while you watched from the sidelines, you old man," he deadpanned.

Both the elderly chuckled at the truth of the young commanders words before slowly quieting down.

"So you two witnessed it all then? You gonna fill me in or what?" Kadowaki asked with a raised brow.

Cid scratched the back of his neck. "Mm . . . . Well, maybe not all of it. We came out of the elevator just as the girl began to run and saw Seifer step in to intervene. He had her in a firm hold, but she got angry and did this thing . . . ," Cid did his best to show what the ninja did earlier with his hands, but with little to no success.

Squall sighed wearily and decided to help the old geezer out. "She slipped out of his hold while performing a cart wheel and then somersaulted over his head before smiling idiotically and then running off again."

Kadowaki blinked her eyes before laughing. "She did that? Really?"

Both replied in unison. "Really."

The doctor calmed herself. "Wow. She's truly an amazing girl, that one. Just full of surprises." All business now, she turned to Squall. "Did you get through with those papers, Commander?" She asked.

Squall nodded. "Just handed them over to Xu so she could schedule her classes and what not before we left the office."

Cid nodded approvingly while nudging the doctor in the side. "You see, I was right, wasn't I?"

She merely nodded and smiled sympathically at Squall.

"You conspired against me?" Squall asked coolly.

Cid waved him off. "'Course not, Commander. Just doing what I thought was the best course of action for this school." He looked Squall in the eyes. "And I do, indeed, think this is the best course of action. I was right to make you commander, Commander. And I have a feeling that I am right, yet again, in handing this new position over to you." Seeing the frustration and the doubt in his young eyes, Cid stood and clasped a hand on his broad shoulders. "I know this is a lot of weight being put on to your shoulders, but you have to trust my beliefs that this will all turn out for the better."

He gestured up to the elevator, which served as transportation that not only led to the offices, but the classrooms on the second level, too. "If you take a look around, Squall, you'll see that those students up there really look up to you and hold a great respect for you. Does this sound familiar?"

Squall closed his eyes at the memory before opening them again and nodding. "Yes. I see where you're coming from. But, sir. Headmaster?"

Cid chuckled. "I guess this is for my benefit as well as yours. I'm getting old, Squall. Too old, in fact. I'm just not the strapping lad that I once was anymore."

Kadowaki snorted at this. "Damn straight you're not. Gonna send me to an early grave going on the way you do everyday." She stood and rubbed her lowerback while glaring half-heartedly at the older man, at the same time getting her point across.

Cid chortled. "Yes, indeed. Indeed. We can't have that now, can we? Anyway, I've been meaning to retire since my wife came back to me, which I have you and your friends to thank for. I just didn't make that decision final until things around here settled down. Now, since it has been for a while, I'm going to go ahead and announce my retirement this week."

Squall nodded in understanding. "Where do you plan to go when you leave?" He asked.

Cid straightened and looked up to the transparent dome of the ceiling, smiling. "Well, the wife and I are going to carry out the rest of our days down in Cetra; FH has done a wonderful job reconstructing our home. Of course, the two of us will be looking forward to visits every now and then. And you are welcome to drop by at any time." He took on a wistful expression as he thought of the beautiful, dark-haired, woman who captured heart all those years ago. "I know Edea will be most pleased to receive visitors, especially if those very same visitors are the children she helped raised."

Squall bowed his head, a small smile quirking the corners of his lips. "Understood."

"Well, shall we continue on, or do you want to return to the office."

Squall thought of all those piles of papers waiting for him back in his office and mentally cringed. "If you don't mind, sir, I want to head into town and get some work done on my gunblade."

The older man smiled broadly. "'Course not, boy. Get on out of here."

With that, Squall bid them good-bye and headed up to his room to retrieved his gunblade and then back down to borrow a car from the school's garage.

"Are you sure you're not expecting too much out of him, Cid?" Kadowaki asked as she watched their commander walk off.

Cid laughed. "Mmm..."

"'Mmm,' what?" Kadowaki asked suspiciously.

Cid rocked back on his heels. "No. My expectations for that young man there are limitless." He coughed. "Indeed. I see what you mean. They may be a bit high, but I wouldn't expect any less coming from him. Besides, he's not alone anymore. He has Quistis, Irvine, Zell and Selphie to back him when things go wrong."

Kadowaki smiled. "You forgot someone there, Cid."

Cid turned to her askance. "What? Pray tell, who?"

"The one person who matters most. The woman he loves, Cid."

A warm flush spread across the older man's nose and cheeks. "Ah, yes! That dear girl. She will especially come in handy. As long as she keeps on loving him and stays by his side, he should be alright."

Kadowaki nodded her head in agreement, but then thought of the young, gray-eyed, girl with short, black, hair and a smile so bright that you just couldn't help but smile back. She thought back to her previous conversation with Squall and noticed he didn't even blink when speaking of the girl. Nor did he show any type of recognition upon her mentioning. She soon began to wonder what would happen if the two should meet face to face.

Kadowaki sighed. _I don't think I really want to find out._

* * *

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A u t h o r ' s N o t e s  
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Been pretty busy on my side, so I didn't have time to write or update. And when I _did_ I just didn't have the energy or the inspiration. So I'm sorry for the long wait and I thank each and every one of you that read and left a review thus far. You guys are AWESOME! I'll try updating before my birthday, which is on the first of April. But if I don't, then sometime during that month. Later peeps!

- N a t s u

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D i s c l a i m e r s a n d C o p y r i g h t s  
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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


	9. Chapter Nine

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**J u l i a**  
Chapter Nine  
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N o t A l o n e  
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Later that afternoon, Squall returned to Garden to find that classes were over and students idly walking here and there.

As soon as he stepped foot within the building, he remembered his previous discussions with Cid. The tension along his back and shoulders (that which he spent the better half of the day in town to get rid of) returned full force. He sighed, shouldered his gunblade, and silently made his way back up to his room.

On his way there, he spotted his friends Zell and Irvine talking off to the side of the main walkway of Garden. They saw him coming and wave in unison.

"Squall, dude, we just heard the news from Cid!" Zell exclaimed with a grin.

Irvine pushed up the brim of his cowboy hat and grinned at his stoic friend. "Yep, held a little staff meeting while you were out cooling off. The girls are all pretty excited about it, too. Congradulations, man." He heartily pounded on Squall's back.

Squall glared at the cowboy, to which Irvine merely smiled at, and roughly ran a hand through his already mussed copper-brown locks.

Zell made note of this. "You look like shit, man. What's up?"

The young commander sighed. "Nothing. Just forget about it."

Irvine smirked. "Right . . . . I thought we had all established this a year ago. Didn't we say to"

"open myself a little and say what's on my mind," Squall finished with some irritation. "Yes. And have I not been doing that?" He deadpanned. At their silence, he scowled darkly and turned away from them. "I just . . . _don't_ want to talk about it right now. So can you guys just," his voice and eyes softened, ". . . just leave me alone. Alright?" That said, Squall stalked off.

Passing students acknowledged their commander with nods and greetings, but he paid them no attention as he passed by. They looked at him oddly and shrugged, continuing on with whatever they were doing or looked on with mild interest.

"Tch. The hell jumped up his ass and died?" Zell asked while crossing his arms over his muscled chest.

Irvine frowned with a sad expression. "We should just do what he wants. He'll come around, eventually. This news about the headmaster was pretty sudden, you know? There's no doubt that I'd be the same way if cornered with such a burden. Right?" He turned to Zell.

Zell shrugged it off and began to shadow box.

Irvine scowled lightly, but did nothing. He told Zell he'd see him later and walked off to find his little sugar muffin.

- - -

Upon entering his room, Squall walked into his bedroom and lied down on his bed as soon as he put his gunblade away. Just as he was closing his eyes to catch a little of much needed rest, a soft knock sounded on his front door. Not feeling up to moving, he felt along his bed until his long fingers came in contact with an embedded remote and pushed a button. A soft _ping_ was heard and then the _swoosh_ of the door as the lock was released on it and then opened.

Not a moment later did a soft, feminine voice call out to him in the next room. "Squall?"

"I'm here," he replied gruffly, tossing an arm over his tired eyes.

Another _swoosh_ was heard as his bedroom door was opened, soon followed by the soft tapping of footsteps coming closer to his bed.

"If I'd known you would be sleeping, I'd have come a little later . . . ."

He rolled onto his side, slowly removing his arm from his eyes and looking up into the owner of the familiar voice's eyes.

"It's . . . all right, Rin," he answered wearily.

Rinoa motioned for him to scoot over and promptly made herself comfortable on the edge of his bed. She leaned back a bit and lift her slender legs one by one and gently rocked herself forward. She sighed softly and turned to meet his stormy gaze, smiling.

"Squall . . . . We're going to make this work, you and I," she began softly. "When you need me most, I'll be right there by your side. Always. If you need to talk, I'm here to listen. Even if . . . if you don't want to talk about whatever's on your mind right away, I'll wait. I'll wait forever." She smiled cheekily and brought her index finger down to lightly tap on the tip of his nose, cocking her head to the side. "Okay?"

Squall stared vacantly up into her beautiful, round, face and, just when she thought he wouldn't do anything, smiled back up at her. It was such a small twist of his lips, but it was there.

Rinoa laughed melodically. "I love when you do that, you know," she said, reaching down to trace his lips with her finger tips.

Squall's smile broadened and captured her wandering hand within one of his own, placing a small kiss onto it's knuckles.

The brown-eyed girl flushed at his gentleness and then gasped sharply when he suddenly pulled her down to lie beside him on the bed. "S-Squall?" She stammered out, turning her head to look at him, only to find his eyes closed and his head resting gently against hers.

"Shh . . . ," was all he said, pulling her closer to him and welcoming the extra body heat.

Rinoa smiled contently and leaned into his arms, closing her eyes. She was half asleep when she heard his voice mumbling softly in her ear.

"Always . . . ?" He asked, burying his head further within the hollow of her neck and shoulder.

She turned her head and placed a gentle kiss upon his lips. "Always. . . . Always."

Within each other's arms, the two slept.

* * *

Else where . . . .

"Oh no! I'm so, so sorry, Lane! I knew I _felt_ something wrong, but . . . butARRUGHH! I'm _so_ angry at myself right now!"

Lane and Yuffie looked on with reserved expressions as Taeon clucked about like a mother chocobo over her newborn chick, pacing every which way in front of her brother's bed.

Yuffie, remembering her friend's sudden disappearance earlier in the day, asked, "Where'd you run off to?"

Taeon stopped amid mentally beating herself up and, with teary, blue, eyes, looked to Yuffie. "I recognized an old friend from Trabia Garden and just _had_ to run over and say hi! Next thing I know, I'm showing her around school and taking her to class. Oh, I _knew_ I shouldn't have left you two alone!" She reached up to pull on her hair and screamed as loudly as she could.

Yuffie and Lane immediately covered their ears. When she showed no sign of stopping, Lane rushed over and clamped a hand on her mouth to quiet her down. When he looked down to scold her for being too loud, he was shocked to find that she was actually crying. As he soon as he released her, he found his neck tightly wrapped in his twin's arms. He flushed lightly in embarrassment, not used to this kind of sororal affection in front of others. Then, slowly, he reached up and began patting her back awkwardly in a comforting manner.

Yuffie stood back in shock. She had no idea that Taeon would react in this way. To the ninja, the taller girl always looked happy, but when it comes to her brother's well-being, that happiness is almost non-existent. What she found out and observed about the girl was that she was very much like herself. Like Yuffie, the twins carried the weight of an almost unbearable loss that it would probably take years for them to fully recover. Yuffie didn't have to ask them to know that they suffered together in a quiet way. All evidence lied within the depths of their eyes. Not only that, but the way Taeon would leap at any given chance to make her brother smile and the way the taller girl would jump in front of him with a fierce look in her eyes, as if protecting him from some unknown enemy. She probably wasn't aware of it, but found that Lane was. The way he laid a calm hand on her shoulder, or the saddened look in his eyes told her so. She saw that same sadness in his eyes earlier just before he collasped and she even saw it now as he gently rocked his sister in his embrace. The scene made her heart ache.

"It's okay, Tae," Lane soothed. "I'm all right."

Taeon only tightened her arms around him at the sound of his voice, angry tears trailing over the curves of her cheeks. "I-I was-s-sn't th-ere for y-you again!" She sobbed. "Not ag-gain! I . . . I-I . . . ."

"I know. I know. And it's okay. I'm okay. Shh . . . . Now calm down." Those sad eyes of his looked over his sister's multi-colored head to the ninja sitting on the edge of his bed. "You're scaring Yuffie, Tae." Her arms tightened again, making it little hard for him to breathe. "Not only that, but you're choking me, too," he gasped.

Taeon immediately released her twin before apologizing over and over again. Said twin coughed a few times before quickly regaining himself and then clamping a hand on her mouth again.

Sighing, Lane turned to Yuffie. "I'm really sorry for the troubles we're causing you. We're . . . um . . . usually not like this. So if you want to, you can leave."

A bit dazed from all the events adding up until now and still a little lost in her thoughts, Yuffie sighed and murmured an "Okay." She didn't know what she had said until Taeon practically pounced on her, fully recovered from her previous act.

"Okay? OKAY?" She wheezed, grasping Yuffie by the shoulders and then shaking her none too gently. "What do you mean by 'OKAY'? Huuuuh?"

Finally snapping out of it, Yuffie did the first thing upon being assaulted out of no where and simply defended herself. Everything happened too fast for all of them in that moment. Soon, Taeon was the one who was dazed and Yuffie was the one who wheezed. She had acted upon instinct and attacked the taller girl, which somehow ended up with herself pinning Taeon to the floor. As soon as she realized what she had did, Yuffie flipped off the girl and stood off to the side, feeling a little lost with her actions.

Lane watched all this with his mouth gaping open. Upon realizing what he was doing, he quickly shut it and took the few steps which had him leaning over a stunned Taeon, who looked up at him with wide, blinking, blue, eyes from his bedroom floor.

"Hey . . . . Are you okay?" He asked, stepping back when she slowly began to sit up.

"Hn . . . ?" She replied dumbly.

Lane looked at her with a bit of worry. "I said: Are you okay?" He repeated slowly. When she didn't respond to his question, he waved a hand before her eyes and then snapped his fingers.

She blinked and slowly looked at him and then at Yuffie.

Yuffie stiffened under her gaze and began to shift her weight from foot to foot nervously. "I-I didn't mean . . . to do that! I'm so sorry!"

Insided her thick skull, Yuffie began to mentally punish herself for her foolishness and actions. _Why? Why? Why is it that whenever I'm around, my friends are always the ones to get hurt? I'm so stupid! No wonder why Cloud and Squall are always yelling at me! Aerith too! Even . . . even though she's a lot nicer than they are . . . . They're always . . . always . . . ._

Almost immediately upon thinking of her friends back at Hollow Bastion, Yuffie teared up. She took one last glance at her new friends and then ran out the door. "I'm sorry!" She yelled on her way out, choking back a sob.

The twins watched the young ninja run out the door. Lane had a sad expression plastered on his face while Taeon's . . . appeared to change dramatically, not really knowing whether she should be sad, happy, surprised or mad. Finally her mouth just hung open. She stood so fast Lane jumped in surprise at the sudden movement and rounded on him so quickly he stepped back until he nearly fell back on his bed.

"Wh-what?" He asked.

Taeon pointed to the edge of the bed, the floor and then the door. She did this robotically over and over again until Lane became exasperated and told her to speak.

"D-did you not _see_ that? Sh-she . . . ." Taeon turned to look at the door and then whirled back on her bewildered twin brother. "Holy Hyne! That was . . . _kick ass_!" She jumped excitedly in place before asking her brother a long stream of questions, so fast, he could hardly keep up. "Where did she learn that? Does she know martial arts? Wasn't that cool? Who taught her? Hey, where'd she go? Ah! We should go find her! Right now!"

Lane rolled his eyes to the ceiling. _She obviously forgot what had just transpired here a moment ago._ He smiled. _Typical, idiot, sister of mine._

Next thing he knew, he was being dragged out of his room and soon they were out of the dormitories and in the main hall of Garden. Holding his hand the way she was and how firmly, poor Lane could do nothing but be dragged along like an oversized ragdoll. Finally, she stopped to ask a passing student if he happened to see their "amazing, ass-kicking, friend" before walking off in a new direction. She became so absorbed in her search that somewhere along the line, she released her vice-like grip on her twin'snow mangledhand.

Now, together, they both could search and cover some ground to find their missing friend. The two became worried after a while and meet up in the lobby to talk.

"Did you find her?" Taeon asked as she jogged up to meet her brother.

Lane shook his head.

Taeon propped a fist on her hips and ran a hand through her multi-colored locks. "Damn! We looked just 'bout _everywhere_! Where could she have gone?"

Lane looked in the general direction of the library and then gazed past that. His face visibly paled when he came to a new revelation. Seeing this, his twin immediately became concerned.

"Lane? You okay?" She asked.

Lane dropped his gaze and met her blue eyes. "There's one place we haven't . . . checked yet." He then began to run off toward the library. When he ran passed that, Taeon became confused and then . . . her eyes widened.

"No way!" She gasped before running after her brother.

Students where pushed roughly aside as she passed through them and grumbled obscenities at her under their breaths or out loud. She didn't pay anyone an ounce of attention, as she became totally focused on one thing: her new friend could quite possibly be dead right now. She shook those thoughts away and picked up her pace. She had just rounded another corner when she suddenly felt herself being jerked back by the collar of her shirt. She gagged and fell to the ground gasping for air.

"You stupid, fuckin', ingrate!" She yelled between breaths. She stood and was now trying to resume her search, but found herself being pulled back again, only this time more gently.

"I'm sorry, Michaels. I didn't know I pulled you that hard," a familiar voice said.

Taeon turned and glared at her assailant. She was about to go off and list every curse on this Hyne forsaken planet, but stopped herself before she even began and looked up pleadingly, with a tear streaked face, at her instructor.

Zell's immediately backed off upon seeing her face, shocked to have witnessed this side of one of his top students. With a bit of unease (as he was not used to handling emotional women) and concern, he asked, "What's wrong? I saw you running and had to stop you. School rules, ya know? Anyway, did I hurt you? Are you all right?"

Taeon shook her head frantically and tried to tell him what was going on, but all that came out was gibberish and frustrated tears.

"Y-Yuffie! . . . enter! Lane alreadyaaahhh! Hurry!" Was all she got out before grabbing her stunned instructors arm and pulling him toward the green entrance of the Training Center.

Finally, seeing that this was a pretty serious and urgent matter, Zell tightened his fighting gloves on his fist and ran with Taeon leading the way. They stopped upon entering the compound of the Train Center.

"Arugh! Damn it. Which way did he go?" Taeon practically turned circles between the two large iron gates of the Train Center.

Zell, finally able to catch his breath asked Taeon what the gist of all of this was about. She quickly explained, as best she could, what had happened up until now and then took off to the left.

"I'll go this way! If we're lucky enough, we might find them hiding out in the Secret Area."

Before she could get any further, however, Zell was there to stop her once again.

"I can't let you go alone! No matter how serious this could be, I can't allow you, a student, to go alone. So I'll go with you!" Zell reasoned.

To frustrated to speak, Taeon could only growl in reply.

"Hey, I'm sorry, but until you graduate, you'll have to make do. You ready?" At her nod, he smiled briefly before turning serious again. "Let's go!"

They opened the gate and hurried along as fast as they could, both in a hurry and too serious a mood to actually enjoy and admire one another's fighting skills. It wasn't long after they had entered into the humid atmosphere of the Training Center that they were ambushed by low level monsters. With Zell fighting along side of her, Taeon had no trouble making quick haste of disposing of the disgusting creatures that came across their path.

They were in luck so far, as they have yet to run across very high leveled monsters. Or worst yet. A T-Rexaur.

Taeon shuddered at the thought and prayed that both her beloved brother and her friend were okay and safe somewhere within the compoundmost preferably the Secret Area.

- - -

Lane crossed, carefully, over a grainy bridge on the other side of the compound, which mostly consisted of water, slime and moss. He nearly lost his footing and almost fell in the water beneath the bridge when he heard something screech off in the distance. He stopped for a moment and tried to calculate just far off the sound was and in which way it was coming from. He relaxed and deeming himself safe for the time being, he continued on his trek to find his missing friend.

Unlike his sister and instructor, who seemed to be fending off monsters almost every five minutes, Lane had yet to run across one thus far. He made the rest the way across the bridge safely and sighed.

_Just a little further._

Then he heard it. The sound was indistinguishable from other monsters in the whole area, making his whole body and the ground beneath him tremble. He barely had time to dodge the swing of a thick tail before finding a place to hide and scan the beast before him.

_Initiating Scan . . . . Scan Complete._

Lane's mind seem to go blank as he concentrated on his spell and sub-conciously read the monsters attributes.

_. . . Level 27. Weakness: Ice. Strong Against: Poison. Alive since the beginning of time, its power and HP are very high. It's better to run if you encounter one._

As the spell completed, Lane nearly snorted at the last tidbit of info it gave him.

_"Run," it said._ He took a quick look around and shook his head. The T-Rexaur's oversized body and tail blocked all possible escape routes. _No chance of that now . . . ,_ he thought, gritting his teeth.

He sighed with frustration and stood out of his hiding place before facing the ancient dino head on.

- - -

Taeon froze in place at the angry roar in the distance.

"Michaels! Behind you!" Zell yelled out in warning, but it was too late.

Taeon was struck down as a Grat came out of it's hiding place behind a few trees and broken machinary, swinging it's long, spike-ended, tentacles every which way. She yelped in pain and grunted as her body hit the ground.

Zell cursed under his breath and took out the monster as quickly as possible and then ran to aid his student.

"Michaels! Hey! You all right? Shit . . . ," he growled angrily as his wondering hand found a warm, sticky, substance coming from a wound on her back. He flipped her body over as gently as he could and made a quick inspection of her wound before casting Cura on her. He was pissed. Not at his student, but at himself. If he had acted sooner, Taeon wouldn't be hurt as badly as she was. He punched the ground.

Startled, Taeon jumped at the force of his punch. She soon regretted her sudden movement and hissed when she felt a burning pain along her back. Trying her best to ignore it, she sat up and regarded her instructor warily.

Seeing the look on her face, Zell did his best to calm his anger and then pushed himself up from the ground.

"Are . . . Are you okay?" He asked gruffly.

Taeon nodded weakly. She then, with the help of her instructor, stood on wobbly legs. She shook off the sudden uneasiness she felt and steadied herself so that she no longer needed Zell's help.

He quickly did another brief examination of her body to see if she gained any other injuries before casting another Cura on her, just to make sure.

Taeon shivered as the spell worked it's magic on her abused body. She was a little sore and tired, but would live. She sighed and thanked him before looking in the direction where she heard the roar from earlier.

"Did you hear that . . . before?" She whispered.

Seeing that she was going to be okay, Zell followed her gaze. "Yeah. We had better hurry up. You ready?"

Taeon smiled at him, but stiffened when a new sensation took hold of her. She trembled and tried to shake the feeling off but couldn't.

"Michaels? What's" Zell stopped when his ears picked up the sound of a loud roar and then the soft, familiar screech of a Guardian Force as it was summoned.

"Lane," Taeon breathed. "And Levie . . . ."

They wasted not a moment longer and took off in the direction of the ongoing battle. Taeon screamed her brother's name when they came within sight of the battle and Zell prepared a few spells to cast once he got there.

"First thing's first," Zell called out before casting Sleep on the irate T-Rexaur. The spell bounced off it's scales and it angrily swooped his tail along the floor. The two jumped out of harms way and Zell tried once again.

"_Sleep_, you fucking beast!" He yelled, casting his spell once again.

The spell proved to be successful this time 'round. The T-Rexaur slowly began to lose conciousness as it nestled it's big head on the floor in sleep.

Lane, who'd been within the protective vortex of his GF until now, reappeared as Leviathan took his leave until called upon again.

Taeon let out a sigh of relief upon seeing her brother, then turned back to the battle at hand. She growled in frustation when she found she couldn't attack the slumbering dino physically and cursed when she realized the spells she carried would only prove to be useless in this battle. Attacking it would only wake it up again and that was not good. If she only had a Blizzaga, or better yet, the ice Gaurdian Force Shiva, she'd be rolling. Fate wasn't on her side this evening, however, as she was stuck with Ifirit instead. He'd probably cause a little damage if summoned, but in this case, 'a little' wouldn't be enough. Zell, of course, had other ideas; he charged forward, fists up and ready to pound the over-sized beast into oblivion.

The twins looked on in awe as their instructor unleashed a whole string of combos and specials upon the unfortunate T-Rexaur's head. It roared in agitation as it awoke once again and made as if to take a bite out of the raging martial artists. It snapped its jaws on empty air and instead got a face full of hard, merciless, fists of raging fury.

He kept at it with amazing speed and energy. When he found that the dino was getting tired, Zell thought it was about time he finished it off. He mentally prepared his combos with another one, which he called Different Beat. He concentrated all his energy within his clenched fists and punched the T-Rexaur before it knew what was coming, sending it clean into the air before quickly following it. While being suspended in the air by an unknown force, Zell replaced his fists for his feet and basically kicked the aging dino into oblivion and back.

Time passed all to quickly for Taeon as she tried her best to distinguish his movements before he came back down again, the T-Rexaur falling heavily to the ground. The twins grabbed onto each other to steady theirselves as the ground shook with the aftershock of the dino's fall and then watched as its body slowly disintegrated into the air, defeated.

Zell clenched his teeth with eyes closed tightly shut as he concentrated on regaining control of his energy before slumping down to the ground with a tired sigh. After gaining back his breath, he turned to the gaping twins behind him and grinned.

"Learn anything new?" He asked in jest, chuckling as he slowly stood on his feet.

Taeon stood in stunned silence before an insane grin found its way onto her grimmy face. She jumped in place excitedly and leaped upon the unsuspecting Zell.

"That was too unbelievably awesome for mere words to describe!" She screeched into his ear before quickly letting go and running back to her brother and then crushing him to her bosom.

Lane flushed in embarrassment as Zell laughed nearby. Finally, he found a way out of his sister's strong arms and then gently patted her on the head.

"Damn you, Taeon," he grumbled, his face burning with embarrassment. "It's bad enough being seen with you out in public like this already." He smiled and lightly nudged her chin with a loose fist.

Taeon scowled playfully up at him, but then quickly took on the look apprehension as she remembered why they were here in the first place. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shook him lightly.

"Lane! Did you find her? Please tell me you did?" At the shake of her twin's head and the defeated slump of his shoulders, she released him.

A thick silence descended on the three.

Taeon stared at her brother in shock and stepped away from him. She whirled around and punched a nearby tree.

"_Damn it_!" She yelled, tears gathering in her eyes.

A sharp yelp soon followed and everyone, startled, looked up.

There, perched high on a less than sturdy branch of the very tree Taeon punched, was Yuffie. The young ninja looked down at them with a pale face and wide, frightened, red eyes. Her eyes widened even more when the branch gave beneath her weight with a loud crack. Mouth open on a silent scream, Yuffie fell.

Everyone gasped sharply and moved forward at once to catch try catching her. Things appeared to move in slow motion for them all as Zell's foot caught itself in a pothole and sent him tumbling to the ground. Then the split branche's leaves sprung itself in Lane's face, rendering him temporarily blind. The suddenness of it all made him lose his footing and he fell back on his posterior, bruising his tail bone. Now it was up to Taeon.

She stopped at the base of the tree and held her arms open, preparing to catch the falling ninja. The force and the weight of the shorter girl combined, sent her sprawled on her back, which was still terribly sore from the battle with the Grat earlier. Her air supply was cut short as it was forcefully removed from her body in one audible _whoosh_. Tae's body arched awkwardly as she gasped out in pain and for much needed air.

Being the first to recover, Yuffie quickly scrambled off her friend and watched Lane come to the aid of his sister. He murmured something under his breath and waved a hand over his sister's immobilized form before helping her to sit up. He then stood and made his way to Yuffie, his movements slow and awkward due to what happened earlier.

Still alarmed by all that had transpired before her eyes, Yuffie shuffled away from Lane.

"Yuffie . . . ?" He called softly, reaching out to her.

Gray eyes meet his warily before slowly looking down at his out stretched hand. They flickered up to meet those soft, trusting, blue eyes again. After a long while, she reached out and put her cold, numb hand within his warm one.

Lane smiled and helped her up off the ground.

"Must be a shock to you, huh?" He took a deep breath and turned to her. "You can always change your mind . . . , Yuffie."

At the sound of her name being spoken, Yuffie's eyes teared up, but she would not let them fall. Not this time. Not again. She roughly swiped an arm across her eyes, doing her best to wipe away any traces of moisture and then smiled.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" She asked, arching one delicately, curved eyebrow. She took her hand from his and propped both fists on her hips while cocking her head to the side.

Dumbfound, Lane looked at her in a side ways glance. Both Zell and Taeon, who were now fully recovered from what took place just a moment earlier, stood around the little ninja with confusion written on their faces.

Yuffie straightened herself and grinned broadly. "I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie! Something this petty will never bring me down!"

The three took a moment to look at each other before desolving in laughter. Yuffie hid a smile behind her hand and reached over to punch Lane in the arm lightly.

"Hey," she said, quickly gaining his attention. She smiled warmly up at him, "I'm sorry for causing everyone trouble and . . . ." She turned away to look at the ground. ". . . Thanks." She looked back up, expecting something entirely different from the happy smile on his face and then the mussing of her already tangled hair afterwards. She threw up her arms to ward him off, only to have them blocked by Taeon as the martial artist wrapped her arms around the surprised shinobi and squeezed her for all she was worth in an embrace.

The happy reunion was soon broken by Zell coughing lightly nearby. Together, they shifted their eyes over to him.

"So this is the friend I've been hearing about?" He asked.

Yuffie squinted her eyes at him and looked to her friends. Seeing the look on her face, Lane sighed.

"Yuffie, this is our instructor Zell Dincht. Instructor, Yuffie Kisaragi," he introduced.

Yuffie's eyes brightened and said the first thing that came to mind. "Chocobo!"

Lane and Taeon gasped in shock and looked warily to their instructor to judge his reaction, as he was known to be a hot head every once in a while. They both wondered if what their little ninja friend said was enough to set him off or not.

Zell did a double take before slumping his shoulders and resigned with a sigh, the complete opposite of what they expected. He straightened and scratched his head. "I . . . get that a lot, it seems." Not taking it to heart, he wiped his hand on his pant leg and extended it out for Yuffie to shake. "Nice meeting ya!"

Yuffie beamed and stepped forward. She grasped his hand firmly and shook it before releasing and returning to the twin's sides.

She cocked her head to the side again and gave him a once over. "Kadowaki was right. You can't be much older than myself; yet, here you are, Instructor." She looked at him from head to foot before grinning. "I think I like you already!"

Zell blinked his eyes at her before slowly replying. "Err, yeah. I think I like you, too, Kisaragi."

Yuffie smiled, happy to have met and possibly made a new friend. Despite the freaky tattoo on his face, Yuffie like the energy and vibes she got from him when shaking his hand. This was a person she could trust. She could just tell and feel it.

_Besides_, she thought with a smirk, _he reminds me of another certain chocobo-haired man back at Hollow Bastion._

When she felt herself becoming sad at the thought of her home, she mentally shook herself. She'd get through this. She'd find Squall and bring him back home with her.

No matter what.

She nodded her head in determination and walked out of the Training Center with her new friends.

- - -

"Zell? Oh my, what happened?" Quistis, who had been visiting the infirmary and checking up on Kadowaki, looked up and frowned in concern as she took in her friend's dishevelled appearance.

Zell sighed. "Oh man, Quisty. You should've been there. It was some pretty amazing stuff!"

Quistis arched a brow. "Amazing? Looks like you've all been through Ifrit's hell and back." Then quite matter-of-factly, she said, "You know that isn't scheduled until a few months from now."

Yuffie's mouth almost literally hit the floor at that. Taeon smirked at her friend's reaction and tossed a glance to her brother. They had a lot of explaining and teaching to do later.

At that moment Kadowaki strolled in and nearly jumped back in shock at the sight before her.

"My dear Hyne! What in all seven hells happened to you four?" She exclaimed, slowly stepping forward.

Yuffie smiled meekly at her from behind Lane and then waved. "H-heya, um, Doctor! We seem to be always meeting under the worst of circumstances lately, ne?" She greeted lamely.

This time the doctor did jump in shock. "Y-Yuffie? Howwhy did this . . . . Oh, forget it! I don't _want_ to know!" Kadowaki leaned against a nearby wall and did a brief inspection of them all before leveling her gaze on one particular tall, dark-haired boy with blue eyes.

Lane ducked his head like a child who got caught with his hand in a cookie jar. "I-I know. You told me to take it easy . . . ," he said softly. "But, eh, Yuffie . . . um . . . ."

Kadowaki rubbed a hand over her tired eyes before dropping it and meeting his gaze. "Let me guess . . . . Something happened between you three," she pointed at Yuffie and the twins one by one, "which caused one of you to be upset. Now, that much I can see, but as for where Zell came into the mix, I'm completely thrown off." She then laughed. "You all look like _shit_!"

Zell scratched his head and looked at the ground, clearly remembering what he told a certain commander earlier. Now, he could only imagine him looking a hell of a lot worse. A _lot_ worse. He sighed and shook his head. Can't be helped now. What were the odds? He could only look forward to a nice warm shower, a good meal, and then sleep. _Deep_ sleep.

He straightened and nodded his head in encouragement as one of his students were carted off to a vacant room to be treated by a disgruntled and very fatigued doctor.

A few minutes later all four were checked and cared for by the doctor. They were all told to stay out of trouble and the poor doctor's hair for at least a week. She made it perfectly clear not to come back unless they were on the verge of death. As soon as they were out and walking down the gray hallway of the infirmary, Yuffie and Taeon burst out laughing. Quistis and Lane both rolled their eyes heaven ward before smiling, while Zell just seemed to be spacing out straight ahead, his shoulders hunched slightly with exhaustion.

He stopped and glance down at the, now, grimmy watch on his wrist and turned to Quistis. "I'll meet you and the others later, Quisty. I'm gonna shower first. Later everyone!" He jogged off.

Taeon sighed and then looked over her shoulders to Quistis and couldn't help but smirk. "'Quisty,' eh?" The young instructor flushed at this. Becoming a bit bolder now, Taeon sashayed her way over to the blonde's side with a sly smile on her lips. "How endearing of our darling Instructor Dincht to give such a nickname . . . . There wouldn't happen to be . . . something _between_ you two, now would there?" She asked while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

At this Quistis promptly snorted before doubling over in laughter. "M-me . . . and Ze-ell? Good Heaven's no! The two of us would never look at each other in _that_ way!" She gasped out between breaths.

Lane went over and ruffled his twin's hair while muttering, "You idiot."

Taeon looked to her brother, perplexed.

Quistis calmed herself long enough to explain. "Zell and I are merely good friends. We've known each since we were this tiny." She showed with her hands just how 'tiny' by holding a hand about three feet from the floor before covering her mouth to let out a few more giggles. "The name 'Quisty' is what all my childhood friends know me by. I have names for them too, but I . . . don't think they'd like for me to disclose them in front of others. And besides," she smiled beautifully, "Zell already has a girlfriend. Infact, here she comes." She walked forward, passing by a dazed Taeon as she did. "Good evening, Rima! Did you come looking for Zell?"

The twins and Yuffie watched as a petite, shy-looking, brunette with a long pig-tail hanging down her back make her way toward them. Compared to everyone's favorite martial artist, this girl was rather plain and frail looking. She was decked out in Balamb Garden's official student uniform and had the appearance of the usual class bookworm. Taeon was shocked to say the least. She, of course, expected a little more of Zell's love interest, not this plain, drab looking thing. But as she got a closer look at her, Taeon found that her eyes showed a kindness that she herself didn't harbor and, her face, a plain sort of beauty.

She shrugged and smiled to herself. Maybe she just expected too much out of Zell. Afterall, he _was_ her instructor, hero and idol. She had looked up to him ever since transfering back to Balamb with her brother. The thing with the sorceresses, just the year before, only fueled her view of him even more. Looking at the shy girl, whom she recognized as one of the librarians that worked part-time at the Library, she felt a sort of happiness surge within her. She was happy that her instructor found someone to love and wished the best for them both.

The girl smiled at Quistis and nodded at the others as she approached. "Yes. A friend of mine told me she spotted him on his way here, escorting a few students. Is he okay? Is he here, Quistis?" She asked, taking on a near fretful expression at the thought of her loved one being hurt. At the blonde instructor's reassuring smile, she gradually relaxed.

"You actually just missed him, Rima. You came from the library, right?" At the girl's nod, Quistis sighed. "No wonder! He must've went in the other direction just as you arrived." At Rima's deflated expression, Quistis chuckled and patted her shoulder. "It's okay. He wasn't injured at all, so there's no need to worry. He told me that he'd be meeting us down at the usual spot for dinner after he cleans himself up."

Rima looked at Quistis, bewildered. "Cleans up? What happened?"

Quistis sighed and shook her head. "I wasn't fully informed myself, but he came in with these three, clothes and hair full of the dust and grime one only can get from being within the compound of the Training Center." She gestured to the three behind her.

The brunette turned her head slightly and looked horrified at what she saw. Yuffie and the twins were most definately covered from head to toe in a layer of filth. She turned back to Quistis and cracked a large smile and chuckled. "He was really that dirty?" She asked.

Quistis nodded and laughed softly.

Taeon grumbled. "I'm _so_ happy to have been a part of everyone's jokes," she said aloud, gaining the attention of everyone standing there. As if it'd do her any good, Taeon dust herself off and stepped forward with a little spring. "Well, I'm gonna hit the showers!" She turned and winked at both Yuffie and her twin. "Coming you two?" At their nods she gaily walked forward and began whistling. "See ya later, Instructor Trepe and Pig-tailed Girl!" She called over her shoulder.

Lane and Yuffie cast each other sideways glances before taking the girl's leads.

- - -

That night Yuffie ran into a slight problem. Just as she was about to leave Taeon's dorm room for the evening, she turned back to the dozing girl on the bed.

Yuffie coughed nervously. "Uh, Taeon?"

Taeon's blue eyes fluttered open as she regarded the little ninja with a face slack with sleep. ". . . Yeah?" She asked, shifting herself around so that she was lying on her stomach.

Deciding she had better say what she wanted quickly before her friend passed out on her, Yuffie asked, "Just where exactly am I supposed to sleep?"

Taeon's eyes shot open at this and sat up to gawk at Yuffie. "Don't tell me you weren't assigned a room?"

The shinobi shook her head.

Taeon cursed and punched her pillow. "Did you go to the office? Xu is the one who manages the rooms and classes, so she's the one to see for that kind of stuff."

Again, Yuffie shook her head no.

Taeon bit her lip and looked at her clock sitting on top of her bed's side shelf and sighed regretfully. "Well, it's too late now to do anything about it. The office always closes at twenty-hundred hours on weekdays and closed on weekends. Tomorrow's already the weekend, so . . . ."

Yuffie calculated the time her friend said in her head, before she breathed out dejectedly and glared at the floor. Eight o'clock. Then her eyes suddenly brightened. "You think Kadowaki's still at the infirmary? Maybe I can . . . ."

Taeon shook her head, cutting her off. "She lives off campus when Garden's stationed here at our home base and lives on campus when it's mobilized again. So she's already check on out of here for today a few hours ago."

Whatever hope Yuffie had, was completely distinguished with Taeon's words. Then she became curious. She carefully sat next to her fatigued friend and looked at her. "Mobilized?"

The martial artist shot her a strange look before explaining. "Didn't we tell you? Balamb Garden's a mobile school. Meaning it can travel to almost anywhere on the world. Ah," she sighed contently with a wistful smile. "I can't wait for you to see it, Yuffie. It's really an amazing sight." She looked to Yuffie and found her dozing off. Taeon smirked. She picked up her pillow and gently thumped the shinobi with it's fluffiness.

Yuffie glared half-heartedly at the taller girl, her grumpy expression making Taeon laugh.

Taeon, though tired as she was, thought there was nothing else to do but put up with Yuffie as her guest for tonight and possibly the entire weekend and went about seeing to the girl's comfort and a place for the ninja to crash.

She got up and walked out her bedroom door and winced at the couch in the livingroom. It was a pretty good place to sit when you just wanted to kick back and relax, but definately not a place to sleep.

_There's no way I'm letting Yuffie sleep there for tonight!_ She thought wearily.

She stopped suddenly upon realizing something. All this time and she had completely spaced out the fact that her roommate moved out just a week before Lane found and rescued Yuffie. She silently clapped her hands in glee at her good fortune and walked to the room next to her own and pushed in the familiar passcode to her old roomy's room.

Even though she wasn't superstitious in the least, Taeon had to agree to some extent that it was an odd twist of Fate for this to have happened.

The door opened silently with a soft _swoosh_ and left her standing within the doorway. The lights turned on automatcially upon her entering and she grinned, soon making quick work of the bed. She went about fluffing and airing out the blankets, sheets and pillows as best she could. Once satisfied with her handiwork, she went to collect her sleepy friend.

Taeon smiled broadly when she returned to her room and giggled softly to herself. This was her first time to witness her friendwhom she already considered dear to herself and her brothersleep with such an adorable expression on her face. The fact that she had already seen this same face over the past couple of weeks didn't count as her new found friend was comatosed at that time and was so far gone that her face was cold, slack, and expressionless.

She suppressed the urge to go up to the sleeping girl and huggle her in her sleep. Oh, she was straight, mind you, but when it came to cute things like this, she couldn't help but resist. She grinned and walked over to her bed, on which her friend had already made herself comfortable, and gently tapped her shoulder.

Yuffie grumbled something out, but didn't wake up. She only tightened her arms around Taeon's pillow and curled her legs up to her chest. The girl reminded Taeon of a cat she saw in town a few days back when both she and her brother went to visit their old aunt at her house. She almost 'awwed' when Yuffie whimpered softly in her sleep and then stuck her bottom lip out in a pout.

Not wanting to, but knew she would have to in order for her to reclaim her bed, Taeon pried Yuffie's vice-like grip from around her pillow and hoisted the girl in her arms. Considering that Yuffie was almost the same size as herself, Taeon staggered slightly under the girl's weight.

"Girl, you're going on a diet as soon as you begin your classes," she muttered under her breath and she carried the girl out of her room and into the next. She practically dropped Yuffie on the bed before straightening up and stretching out her abused muscles. Her back popped and she sighed.

She stepped back and looked at the slumbering girl. She couldn't quite figure out what she found wrong with this. Then she snapped her fingers and went back to her room. She began picking out a couple pieces of comfortable clothing she could lend for the night and then headed back to the other room. Not in the least bit embarrassed, Taeon quickly stripped the girl down to her underwear and redressed her properly with a pair of flannel pajama pants and a comfortable, long-sleeved, t-shirt (as it tended to get a bit cool during the night). _Finally_, Taeon was satisfied and bid the sleeping girl good-night before heading back to her room for much need sleep. She was out before her head hit her pillow.

In the next room over, Yuffie smiled in her sleep and thanked who ever was watching over her for blessing herself with such wonderful friends and hoped her 'family' was doing okay back in her home world. She squeezed her eyes shut against the sting of tears when she pictured the faces of Aerith, Cloud, Cid and Leon. She rolled over, hugging her pillow against her chest, and slowly went back to sleep.

* * *

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Rima: In FF8, the librarian doesn't exactly have a name. To everyone, who has played the game, she was always known as the "Pig-Tailed Girl." Even though she plays no major role in this story, I thought I should I least _name_ the poor girl, so "Rima" it is! Another thing about her is that she had always admired and looked out for Zell from afar, until she finally got up enough courage to see and tell him how she feels in Balamb Town during Disc 3...I think. Or was it Disc 2... She even helped him out in various ways through out the game by giving him items (most times indirectly through Squall) and combo learning magazines. Anyway, because of how the ending of the game came about, I can only assume that they became girlfriend and boyfriend after the sorceresses were defeated.

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Julia the piano score NOT the story, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters, settings and anything/everything, EXCEPT FOR the plot and storyline of THIS PARTICULAR STORY/FANFICTION TITLED 'JULIA', is and copyrighted to their respectful owners of Squaresoft, Square-Enix, Nobou Uematsu, Disney and any other who have any rightful claim. Original characters, that may come into play, settings, plot, storyline and this story/fanfiction is copyright and claimed by J.Watson aka Natsu/Natsumi. 


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